The Kremlin said in remarks published on Sunday that the tougher the sanctions imposed on Russia by Europe, the more painful the recoil would be for Europe’s own economies as Russia had grown resistant to such “illegal” sanctions.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered a wave of Western sanctions on Russia and it is by far the most sanctioned major economy in the world.
The West said that it hoped its sanctions would force President Vladimir Putin to seek peace in Ukraine, and though the economy contracted in 2022, it grew in 2023 and 2024 at faster rates than the European Union.
The European Commission on June 10 proposed a new round of sanctions against Russia, targeting Moscow’s energy revenues, its banks and its military industry, though the United States has so far refused to toughen its own sanctions.
Asked about remarks by Western European leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron that toughening sanctions would force Russia to negotiate an end to the war, the Kremlin said only logic and arguments could force Russia to negotiate.
“The more serious the package of sanctions, which, I repeat, we consider illegal, the more serious will be the recoil from a gun to the shoulder. This is a double-edged sword,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television.
Peskov told state television’s top Kremlin correspondent, Pavel Zarubin, that he did not doubt the EU would impose further sanctions but that Russia had built up “resistance” to such sanctions.
President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that any additional EU sanctions on Russia would simply hurt Europe more – and pointed out that Russia’s economy grew at 4.3% in 2024 compared to euro zone growth of 0.9%.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)