US Sanctions Imply Declaration of Trade War on Russia: PM Medvedev

The Russian Premier in a Facebook post added that he is confident that these measures will have no sense and that Russia, nevertheless, will be able to develop.  "A fully-fledged trade war has been declared on Russia," he noted.
 
"We will quietly continue our work to develop economy and the social sphere and will be engaged in import substitution, as well as address most important state tasks, counting upon ourselves, first of all," the prime minister stated.
 
"We have learnt to do it in the recent years in the conditions of almost closed financial markets, fear of foreign creditors and investors to bankroll in Russia on pain of sanctions against third parties and countries," he added. "It benefitted us in some way, though sanctions are senseless as a whole," Medvedev stated. "We’ll pull through," Medvedev affirmed.
 
The comments by Medvedev came after US President Donald Trump signed into law Wednesday morning legislation that levies new sanctions against Russia and restricts Trump's own ability to ease sanctions in place against Moscow.
 
The new sanctions bill hits Russia's energy and defense sectors, and also includes fresh sanctions against Iran and North Korea.
 
The measure was signed into law after it passed with overwhelming margins in both the House and Senate; which made the threat of a presidential veto a non-starter.
 
The Russian Prime Minister added that, "Trump's administration has demonstrated total impotence by surrendering its executive authority to Congress in the most humiliating way."
 
Medvedev thinks the "American establishment has won an overwhelming victory over Trump" and he describes the sanctions as "yet another way to put Trump in his place."
 
The statement came not long after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had noted that "retaliatory measures already have been taken." That was a reference to Russia's decision to sharply cut the US diplomatic personnel and close a US recreational retreat and warehouse facilities.
 
The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that "we naturally reserve the right for other countermeasures."