Why doesn't Russia respond to Western sanctions?

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would not impose sanctions against the United States and the European Union. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry promised to take stepы in response to the sanctions that would painfully echo in Washington. Nevertheless, no such step has been taken yet. Why?

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Commenting on yet another portion of sanctions from the U.S. and the EU, Vladimir Putin said there was no need for Russia to respond with sanctions in return.

At the end of April, when Washington and Brussels announced another round of sanctions to be introduced against several Russian citizens and companies, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow would not leave the move without a response: "We have never concealed the fact that there are possibilities for such a response, and the set of measures that could be taken is large enough." He stressed out that "the response would painfully echo in Washington."

However, Russia does not seem to be in a hurry to hurt Washington.

"Why do we need to respond stupidly to stupidity?" the head of the Department for Applied Political Science at the Financial University of the Government of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Simonov said.

According to him, "Russia can respond indeed - Western companies work in Russia actively." "In fact, the dependence on Russia is quite strong, many are not even aware of this dependence. This includes the consumption of Russian products and investment in Russia," the expert said in an interview with Pravda.Ru.

"The list of things, with which we can cause damage to Western companies is a very extensive one. The question is, why do we have to do it? If we introduce restrictions on the presence of foreign companies in Russia, then it will affect us as well. The Europeans, when they impose sanctions, must be aware of the fact that it will affect their own consumers. It is impossible to do anything else in the situation when Russian and European economies are so intertwined. Many in Europe are against these sanctions, because they are only possible at the expense of self-restraint,"  said Konstantin Simonov.

"Our position on Ukraine and the Crimea is clear and unambiguous. We do not believe that we violated international law and that we should be subject to sanctions. We will prove our rightness in a different way," the head of the Department for General Politics of the Higher School of Economics, Leonid Polyakov said in an interview with Pravda.Ru.

"I think that we should not get involved in this game. It seems to me that those, who threaten us with sanctions and use them, will eventually come to their senses and realize that this is a pointless and counterproductive endeavour. I think this is what our position is based on, and it will ultimately give positive results," says the analyst.

Anton Kulikov
Pravda.Ru

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