Kremlin Strongly Critical of New US Sanctions, Too Early to Mull Response

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Kremlin continues to vehemently oppose any new US sanctions as harmful not only to Russian-US ties but also against the interests of third countries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

"We consider this continued sanctions rhetoric counterproductive, harmful to the interests of our two countries, and potentially of course harming the interests of other countries," Peskov told reporters.

Asked about potential retaliatory measures, he noted that "we also consider any hypothetical reasoning as inappropriate."

"It is counterproductive to talk about any eventual response measures without having clear input on adopted or not adopted decisions," Peskov said.

Peskov also stated that the Kremlin will not comment on reports of the European Union deliberating new anti-Russia sanctions over Siemens turbines allegedly delivered to Crimea.

"We do not consider it possible to comment on the Reuters report, which does not contain any links to at least some intelligible source," Peskov told reporters.

He noted that "often, such messages turned out to be fake, therefore we do not consider it possible to comment on this."

In early July, Siemens created a task force team to investigate reports about the transfers of turbines produced by Siemens Gas Turbines Technologies, a joint venture with the Russian Power Machines company, to the Crimean peninsula. On Friday, the company said it had "credible information" that all four of its turbines intended for the project in Taman were illegally delivered to Crimea. Siemens decided to annul a power plant equipment supply license agreement and suspend power equipment supplies to Russian state firms to devise new control measures.

Commenting on the issue, Russia's Technopromexport (TPE) said it purchased turbines for Crimean power plants in the secondary market, with Russian engineering companies modernizing them.

 

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