Putin calls US sanctions ‘counterproductive’
SOCHI, Russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called US sanctions against Moscow “counterproductive and senseless” after Washington warned that more “economic pain” was to come.
The latest raft of punitive measures did, however, lead to a dip in the ruble which came dangerously close to its lowest levels in two years against the dollar and the euro.
“Sanctions are actions that are counterproductive and senseless, especially against a country like Russia,” Putin said during a news conference with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
“I hope our American colleagues will realize that such a policy has no future and that we will start cooperating normally,” he added.
Putin said the “problem” came not just from US President Donald Trump, but from “the establishment”.
His remarks came after senior US Treasury official Sigal Mandelker said on Tuesday that Washington can inflict “much more economic pain ... and will not hesitate to do so” if Moscow does not cease what she called “malign activity”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov told RIA Novosti news agency that the US sanctions “have no influence on our policy”, adding that they will be on the agenda on Thursday in Geneva in talks between US National Security Adviser John Bolton and his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev.
Trump and Putin met in Helsinki in July, their first bilateral meeting, after which the US president was highly criticized at home for being very conciliatory with his Russian counterpart.
Despite a lack of tangible improvement in relations, which are at their lowest ebb since the end of the Cold War, Putin on Wednesday reiterated that the meeting was “useful”.
“I believe it was useful. Nobody counted on resolving all the disputed issues in the course of a two-hour conversation,” Putin said.
The prospect of another summit between the two leaders has been postponed until next year due to the ongoing investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and suspicions of collusion between Trump’s team and the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday met with his British counterpart Jeremy Hunt and discussed “a number of global issues, including the ongoing threat posed by Russia’s dangerous and destabilizing activity and Iran’s malign behavior, the defeat ISIS campaign, as well as the humanitarian situation in Yemen”.