Putin to Decide on Tit-for-Tat Measures in Response to US Sanctions, Says Diplomat

 MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a decision on new sanctions against the US, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Rossiya-1’s 60 Minutes show on Monday.

According to him, imposing retaliatory sanctions “is a prerogative of the Russian president.” Ryabkov added that Putin “is considering various options and will make a decision in due time.”

When speaking about the Russian Foreign Ministry’s role, the diplomat pointed out that “our role as an agency is to report to him [Putin], alongside other agencies, about the recent developments, also providing analysis, forecasts and some ideas.” “But it is he who makes decisions,” Ryabkov stressed.

 New US sanctions

The United States’ sanctions on Russia over Moscow’s alleged involvement in the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the British city of Salisbury came into effect on Monday. The US Department of State argues that Russia is in breach of the 1991 Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act.

The new restrictions include a total ban on the supply of electronic devices and other dual-use products to Russia.

Earlier this month, a senior State Department official said, however, that the US authorities intend to make exceptions to the new sanctions on Russia. According to the official, “we will have a waiver for the provision of foreign assistance to Russia and to the Russian people.” “We are also waiving sanctions with respect to space flight activities, because of course there are space flight actions in which we are engaged with the Russian Federation upon which we depend in some regards… And we are also having a carve-out for safety of commercial passenger aviation because some of these

national security sensitive goods in question are ones that perhaps might be important for safety of flight issues,” the official added.

Meanwhile, more tough measures may be taken in November. The US authorities said however that Russia may escape the harsher sanctions if it provides credible guarantees not to use chemical and biological weapons and allows the United Nations and other international organizations to carry out inspections on the country’s soil.

Skripal saga

According to London, former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal, 66, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia, 33, suffered the effects of an alleged nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, London rushed to accuse Russia of being involved in the incident. Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations, saying that neither the Soviet Union nor Russia ever had any program aimed at developing such a substance.

TASS

R.S