The State Department declared the right to respond to Russian countermeasures

Russia's retaliatory sanctions against the US are "escalating" and "regrettable." This, according to Reuters, said a representative of the State Department.

The US reserves the right to retaliate against Russian sanctions, although it does not believe that escalation is in its interest, he added.

US President Joe Biden on April 15 imposed new sanctions against Russia. American banks and other financial institutions were banned from purchasing in the primary market denominated in rubles and other currencies bonds issued by the Bank of Russia, the National Wealth Fund or the Russian Ministry of Finance after June 14, 2021, and from providing loans to the latter.

In addition, the United States announced the expulsion of ten Russian diplomats, among whom, according to Washington, there are intelligence officers. The sanctions also affected a number of individuals and entities that the United States considers involved in cyber attacks, alleged interference in the presidential elections, the "occupation of Crimea" and human rights violations on the peninsula, including in the Simferopol pre-trial detention center. In addition, earlier, due to the situation with oppositionist Alexei Navalny, the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service Alexander Kalashnikov, the director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov, Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, the first deputy head of the presidential administration Sergei Kiriyenko and the head of the presidential administration's department for domestic policy Andrey Yarin fell under US restrictions.