The Kremlin Wednesday said it saw no bright prospects for an improvement in ties between Russia and the United States any time soon, as Moscow braced for a new raft of U.S. sanctions. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the sanctions against Russia “illegal” and painted a pessimistic picture of relations.
“Rosy prospects for the normalization of Russian-U.S. ties are not visible on the horizon,” Peskov told reporters Wednesday.
“But that does not mean that we are not aiming for dialogue, that we don’t want dialogue, because we are facing a lot of problems,” he said, referring to arms control as one of outstanding issues.
“These problems will not disappear without talks.”
Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Wednesday that Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump would briefly see each other in Paris during this weekend’s events marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, but won’t have a full-scale meeting.
Speaking after Democrats took control of the lower house of Congress, Peskov sought to downplay concerns that the midterm result would further complicate Washington’s ties with Moscow, saying bilateral relations were already tricky and stressing that Moscow had not interfered in the U.S. vote.
Tuesday, the United States also said it was preparing fresh sanctions against Moscow over the attempted assassination in Britain of a former spy, after a previous round sowed chaos on Russian markets.
Three months after the United States declared that Russia violated a U.S. law that seeks the elimination of chemical and biological weapons, the State Department told Congress in a legally mandated follow-up that Moscow had not come into compliance.
“We intend to proceed in accordance with the terms of the [Chemical and Biological Weapons] Act, which directs the implementation of additional sanctions,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.
She said the State Department was in discussions with Congress, which has led the push to punish Russia, to determine the exact measures.
Russia has denied involvement in the attempted assassination in Salisbury and has promised reciprocal measures to all US sanctions.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned in August that any imposition of further sanctions would constitute a “declaration of economic war.”
The Kremlin said new sanctions would be illegal and Russia would respond with similar measures.
Lawmakers across the political spectrum have urged a strong response to Russia, despite President Donald Trump’s avowed affinity for Putin.
Representative Ed Royce, a Republican and outgoing chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the Trump administration needs to act quickly on new sanctions.
“It is unacceptable that the administration lacks a plan or even a timeline for action on the second round of mandatory sanctions required by U.S. law,” he added.
The first round of sanctions banned exports to Russia of arms and other products with national security applications and froze any U.S. government credit guarantees to Russia.
The sanctions announcement in August sent Russian stocks plunging and the ruble fell to its lowest level against the dollar in nearly two years.
The drop came even though the direct effects of the initial sanctions were limited, as Russia the major rival to the United States as an arms exporter does not buy weapons from the U.S.
The State Department also made a number of exemptions in the sanctions, such as continuing military trade to allow space cooperation with Russia including commercial space launches.
Russia had already been under sanctions since 2014 over its military meddling in Ukraine.