Russia says expects "illegitimate" U.S. sanctions to stay in place
MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) - U.S. sanctions are illegitimate but Russia expects them to stay in place for a long time, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday, describing Moscow's ties with Washington as being in their "deepest chill".
"There will be no easy or fast way out of this," Ryabkov told the Russian parliament, adding that he believed Washington would refuse to recognise Crimea as part of Russia "for decades to come".
More from RFE/RL's News Desk on Ryabkov's comments:
A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow will not give in to U.S. sanctions he claims are aimed at driving President Vladimir Putin from power.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told a parliamentary hearing on U.S.-Russian relations on December 8 that Moscow is "not ready to make concessions to the United States on essential issues" but rather seeks a "balance of interests."
The United States and European Union has imposed economic sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March and its support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Ryabkov told the State Duma that the aim of the U.S. sanctions "is to create social and economic conditions to carry out a change of power in Russia."
His comments echo those of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said on November 22 the West wants to "press for a change of the regime" in Russia.
An excerpt from "Next: Russia Unplugged," an opinion piece by Maxim Trudolyubov in "The New York Times":
There was a time when we Russians thought of our country as one of those burgeoning, dynamic places, a land of diamonds in the rough. But todayRussia is no longer an emerging nation. Instead, it’s hiding its face from the world.
As a result of the Kremlin’s own actions, and Western countermeasures, Russia may gradually find itself cut off from many of its international links, “unplugged” from capital markets, global news media, foreign expertise, and even the World Wide Web. To stay on top of Russia’s power pyramid, President Vladimir V. Putin and his minions feel they must corral and tame the Internet.
Russian news anchors and official commentators are constantly telling us the outside world is a dangerous place, and the global Internet is increasingly presented as a vehicle for hostile foreign influence. The Russian Interior Ministry calls the web “the main channel for the dissemination of destructive and extremist ideologies.”
Read the entire article here.
Just in from Reuters:
US sanctions aimed at changing power in Russia - deputy minister
MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) - A deputy Russian foreign minister accused the United States on Monday of trying to bring down President Vladimir Putin by imposing sanctions on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine, TASS news agency reported.
"It is hardly a secret that the goal of the sanctions is to create social and economic conditions to carry out a change of power in Russia," TASS quoted Sergei Ryabkov as telling the lower house of parliament.
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Ukraine’s energy minister has said Kyiv expects Russia to resume supplies of gas from December 8.
Volodymyr Demchyshyn made the announcement on television late on December 7, after Kyiv transferred a prepayment of $378 million to state-controlled Russian gas company Gazprom for gas shipments in December.
Gazprom says the transfer was made at 0200 local time on December 6, paving the way for the first shipments since Moscow cut supplies in June in a dispute over prices and debts.
Russia wants Ukraine to pay for gas in advance.
According to the terms of a deal signed in October by Ukraine’s Naftogaz and Gazprom, gas should flow from Russia to Ukraine within 48 hours from when the Russian firm receives the transfer.
Cash-strapped Kyiv had delayed buying new supplies, but increasingly cold weather has forced it to draw down on severely depleted reserves.