MOSCOW. Aug 16 (Interfax) - Moscow understands that the United States will unavoidably expand anti-Russian sanctions, and warns the U.S. about the consequences those sanctions will have for bilateral relations, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Interfax.
"Indeed, considering the anti-Russian hysteria that hit the United States a long time ago and spread to an unprecedented scale by now, we have to proceed from the unavoidability of the constant expansion of the U.S.' blacklists and Washington's search for even more intricate forms of measures that are aimed at forcing us to abandon our independent course on the world stage, which meets the national interests," Ryabkov said.
"This will lead to the steady degradation of the Russian-U.S. relations, and we keep saying so to the Americans. It looks like they do not care about this prospect. We measure our responses and follow the orders from the national administration. We will behave in the same fashion in this particular case," he said.