Russia denounces US sanctions as act of primitive revenge

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Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev suggested on Thursday Russia could increase defense spending in response to "evil" new Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

He said Russia would not be bowed by the sanctions announced by the United States and the European Union but told a government meeting such moves could set relations back to the 1980s - the latter stages of the Cold War.

"Any sanctions are evil," Medvedev said in televised comments at the meeting. "The international record shows that such sanctions have never been able to bring anyone to their knees."

He said such moves "cannot help but affect our budget policy" though he pledged to carry out all the government's social obligations.

"But we will also have to pay more attention to our defense and security expenditures. We know how to do that," he said.

Medvedev said the sanctions would not help Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists have rebelled in eastern regions, and would fuel anti-US sentiment in Russia.

In turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized new US sanctions against Moscow on Thursday as a "primitive attempt to avenge the fact that developments in Ukraine are not following Washington's scenario".

Washington, which accuses Moscow of being the driving force behind pro-Moscow separatist unrest in eastern Ukraine, slapped the toughest sanctions yet on Russia on Wednesday.

"It is widely known that sanctions are a double-edged sword," the ministry said in a statement, adding it reserved the right to introduce retaliatory measures.

Earlier, the chief executive of Russia's VTB bank said new US sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis were inappropriate and warned of potentially devastating consequences for the global financial system.

"Of course, these sanctions are inappropriate and of course they do not correspond to the spirit or the legal standards of existing international relations, in particular in the field of finance and banking," Andrei Kostin, whose bank is Russia's second largest, was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency.

"I believe that if we do not take measures to stop such unilateral actions, we could see devastating consequences for the global financial system."

REUTERS

Russia denounces US sanctions as act of "primitive" revenge