Russian Foreign Minister: Putin is ready to meet with ‘unfriendly’ Trump
The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov said that Russia was ready to “meet even with representatives of the states that lead unfriendly policies – including the USA”, TASS reported.
Commenting on the relevance of a meeting in the light of Washington’s statements on sanctions, Lavrov answered, “We have never avoided communication, including with representatives of the states that have adopted a clearly unfriendly policy towards us”.
“If the two leaders feel the need to meet and refer to the issues that we thought should have united Russia and the US, although they are rejected in some circles within the US, a meeting will take place,” he added.
Earlier, the US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that the US will impose new sanctions against Russia due to the use of a chemical weapon to poison Sergey and Yulia Skripal in Great Britain.
The new sanctions are expected to come into force in late August 2018.
Later, referring to the US State Department, The Washington Post reported that the US will impose restrictions on trade with the Russian Federation and may even sever diplomatic ties if Russia does not get rid of all chemical and biological weapons under the supervision of the international community.
In addition, Washington may stop practically the entire trade between the two states and ban landing rights for Russian airlines.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in his turn, announced that if the US strengthens sanctions against Russia, Russia will have to respond with economic, political, and other methods.
“If the US bans, for example, the activity of banks or the use of this or that currency, Russia will perceive it as an announcement of an economic war,” Medvedev said.
The meeting of the US President Donald Trump and the Russian President Vladimir Putin took place on July 16 in Helsinki. Later, Trump expressed hope for a second meeting with Putin “to implement the issues they discussed” at the first summit.