“A sharp change in Donald Trump’s position, who on Wednesday announced tough sanctions against russia, seems to have caught the russian Foreign Ministry off guard. Moscow is counting on the continuation of talks with Washington, the Foreign Ministry’s official representative Maria Zakharova said at a briefing”, - reports “The Moscow Times” Telegram channel on October 23.
“We do not see significant obstacles to continuing the process initiated by the presidents of russia and the USA to agree on the political framework for a Ukrainian settlement”, - Zakharova said.
“The russian Foreign Ministry on its part is open to continuing contacts through the US State Department line, along the very understandings that were reached in the October 16 conversation between the presidents. The goal is seen as specifying the parameters of further Russian-American dialogue both on various aspects of bilateral relations and on various joint steps on the track of the Ukrainian settlement”, - Zakharova added.
In her statement she refrained from sharply criticizing Trump’s sanctions, which hit Rosneft and Lukoil.
Moscow considered sactions a “counterproductive step”. Zakharova diplomatically noted: “For us there will be no particular problems in connection with the aforementioned decision of the US Treasury”.
Medvedev, on the contrary, accused Trump of an “act of war against russia” and threatened to “hammer with a variety of weapons at all Bandera hideouts”.