A day after President Joe Biden hit Moscow by a number of penalty measures, but did not give an indication of the timing, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided on the counter-sanctions that were to be imposed upon Washington The Kremlin stated Friday.
On Thursday, the U.S. Government blacklisted Russian firms, expelled Russian diplomats, and prevented U.S. banks from buying Russian central bank, national rich fund and finance ministry sovereign bonds.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was mulling its response.
“The principle of reciprocity for such matters has not been cancelled, but everything will depend on the decisions made by the (Russian) head of state.”
Peskov did not say when Putin would decide on counter sanctions, though Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday retaliatory sanctions would come soon.
Peskov added that the Kremlin had yet to decide on Putin’s possible participation in a U.S.-led climate summit.
“Their views categorically do not coincide when it comes to creating mutually beneficial relations and taking each other’s interests into account,” Peskov said of Putin and Biden.
Peskov said the Russian leader had repeatedly said that Russia was ready to cooperate with the United States as much as Washington wanted to cooperate with Moscow.
The U.S. sanctions were a response to Moscow’s alleged meddling in last year’s U.S. election, cyber hacking, bullying Ukraine and other alleged malign actions. Russia denies all the allegations.
Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the United States, was recalled to Moscow last month amid deteriorating ties. He attended a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday.