Washington Has No Tools To Make Russia Give Up Country's Sovereign Policy - Kremlin

The United States does not possess any means that could make Russia give up its sovereign policy, as evidenced by the futile US sanctions, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty in an interview released on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th January, 2019) The United States does not possess any means that could make Russia give up its sovereign policy, as evidenced by the futile US sanctions, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty in an interview released on Tuesday.

"Despite the fact that the United States is the largest economy in the world, it does not have the tools that could force Russia to abandon its sovereign policy. Even after using such an arsenal of all kinds of restrictions, the United States did not fulfill this task. Sanctions did not change anything after all! Similarly, we do not have levers that could force the United States to abandon their line either," Peskov said.

The spokesman recalled that Russia had been living under various kinds of restrictions, including the ones imposed by Washington, for the past 40 years.

Relations between Russia and the United States took a nosedive in 2014 under then-President Barack Obama after the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine. The United States has since been introducing and toughening sanctions against Russia for what the West considers the "annexation of Crimea," as well as for Russia's alleged cyberattacks, the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, and Moscow's alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

Russia has repeatedly denied all allegations. Moscow also insists that Crimean residents voluntarily chose to rejoin Russia and that the referendum on the matter was held in compliance with international law.