Official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova . File photoMOSCOW, March 13Closing Russian business abroad by the West by force is not normal, Western countries have turned their obligations into garbage, says Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Well, about the panic mood of all those people on Instagram and other social networks, (who) have already grown stronger and thought that this is forever. Firstly, now they (people — ed.) understand, the word «forever» in relation to what is guaranteed by the US government does not work. They just turned all their obligations into garbage,» she said on the air of the Rossiya 1 TV channel. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. In response to this, the United States, the EU countries and a number of other states, including Japan, introduced new sanctions against Russia and major Russian organizations.
Greed will force Western brands to return to Russia, Rogozin believes As the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said earlier, the Western sanctions are very serious, Russia was preparing for them in advance. He added that they require analysis and coordination of departments in order to develop response measures that meet the interests of the Russian Federation. Dmitry Birichevsky, director of the Department of Economic Cooperation of the Russian Foreign Ministry, told RIA Novosti that Moscow's reaction to Western sanctions would be prompt and sensitive, work on response measures is ongoing all directions. He noted that in the face of increased restrictions, the Russian side is reducing the use of the dollar in foreign exchange reserves and external settlements, switching to non-Western capital markets, and also making efforts to protect investment projects from external negative influence. The diplomat stressed that Moscow regrets that the European Union unleashed a «total economic war» against Russia. At the same time, Birichevsky noted, EU sanctions cause enormous damage to the citizens of the Union itself and the reasons for their introduction are difficult to justify logically. The Russian Foreign Ministry later added that the lists of retaliatory personal sanctions against the West were ready.
