Moscow ‘won’t bend or break’ over US sanctions – Russian envoy to UN
RT.com
2 Aug, 2017
Moscow “won’t bend” and has no plans to change its policies following Donald Trump’s signing of new anti-Russian sanctions, says its permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya.
“If those who came up with this bill thought that they could change our policies with it, they were mistaken. History is proof of that. They need to understand that we do not bend or break,” Nebenzya told journalists in New York.
Nebenzya, who was appointed last month to replace the late Vitaly Churkin, added that the ratification was expected, and would “inevitably” further damage the relationship between the two countries.
“De facto, this changes nothing. There is nothing new here,” Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told the media in Moscow.
“Counter-measures have already been taken.”
After the cross-party bill was approved overwhelmingly by the House and Senate last week, the Russian president announced that the US would have to cut its embassy staff in the country by 755 people by September, and said that Moscow would seize several buildings used by diplomats.
