SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Russia’s foreign ministry on Thursday said it would respond in the near future to U.S. sanctions, which included expelling 10 diplomats and restricting Russia’s ability to issue sovereign debt.
The United States imposed a broad array of sanctions on Russia to punish it for alleged interference in U.S. elections, cyber-hacking, bullying Ukraine and other “malign” acts.
“The U.S. ambassador in Russia is at our foreign ministry right now. I would hardly have said this before, but I can say it now: It’s not going to be a pleasant meeting for him,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing, according to Reuters.
Among the actions, President Joe Biden issues an executive order authorizing the U.S. government to sanction any sector of the Russian economy and used it to restrict Russia’s ability to issue sovereign debt to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2020 U.S. election.
Biden barred U.S. financial institutions from taking part in the primary market for rouble-denominated Russian sovereign bonds from June 14. U.S. banks have been barred from taking part in the primary market for non-rouble sovereign bonds since 2019.
The U.S. Treasury also blacklisted 32 entities and individuals which it said had carried out Russian government-directed attempts to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election and other “acts of disinformation and interference”.
In concert with the European Union, Britain, Australia and Canada, the Treasury also sanctioned eight individuals associated with Russia’s ongoing occupation and repression in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
