Russia to retaliate after US sanctions

Russian officials lambasted new U.S. sanctions Friday and vowed to push back in response as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate.

In a phone call with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed Moscow’s “categorical disagreement” with the punitive measures announced Wednesday in connection with the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in Britain.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, which reported details of the call while the State Department had no immediate comment, Lavrov told Pompeo there is no proof Russia played a role in the March attack on the former Kremlin spy, Sergei Skripal. Under U.S. law, the Trump administration is required to impose new sanctions when governments are determined to have used chemical or biological weapons.

The sanctions, which do not take effect for two weeks, primarily ban U.S. exports of technology and machinery to Russia.

A proposed bill in the Senate would ban investments in Russian energy projects, sovereign debt and national banks.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Friday that the sanctions could be a “declaration of economic war” and vowed to respond.

“Speaking on further sanctions, I would not like to comment, but I can say one thing,” Medvedev said at a meeting of employees of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve. “If a kind of prohibition of bank activities or using this or that currency followed, this can be called, absolutely directly, this is a declaration of economic war.

“And to this war, we will have to react by economic, political and, in case of necessity, other methods. And our American friends must understand that.”