Washington’s latest sanctions against Russia are intended to undermine bilateral relations and will not be left unanswered, the Russian Embassy in Washington said in its official Twitter microblog on Dec. 30.
"We consider new sanctions of current administration against Russia, Russian diplomats, their families in the U.S., not just as unfriendly act. Announced on Dec. 29, sanctions are aimed directly at undermining Russia-U.S. bilateral relations," the Russian diplomatic mission said. "They won't be left unanswered."
On many occasions, Russia has strongly denied any role in the attacks, including leaks of sensitive information that marred the electoral campaign of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. However, the outgoing Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia’s military intelligence and security services and expelled 35 Russian diplomats over Moscow’s alleged role.
Moscow believes that by imposing the sanctions in the waning days of his presidency, Obama is trying to disrupt his successor’s plans. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the sanctions pursued two goals - "first is to further spoil the Russian-U.S. relations, which are already at their lowest, and, apparently, to deal a blow to the foreign policy plans of the future administration of the U.S. president-elect."
Source: TASS