Russia calls US sanctions against oil companies 'counterproductive'

Moscow, Oct 23 (IANS) Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday called the US sanctions against two Russian oil companies "counterproductive" and stressed that Moscow would not face any issue due to the sanctions as it has "strong immunity" to Western sanctions.

Commenting on US Treasury Department's sanctions against Lukoil and Rosneft, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, "We consider this step to be exclusively counterproductive," Russia's leading Tass news agency reported.

Zakharova's statement comes after US President Donald Trump has imposed new sanctions on Russia, targeting its two largest oil companies, in his latest bid to end the conflict in Ukraine. The US Treasury Department targeted Russian companies -- Rosneft and Lukoil, and their subsidiaries, warning that a future action could not be ruled out.

On dialogue with the US, Zakharova stated that Russia sees "no significant obstacles" in continuing the process initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump to agree on the political framework for a settlement in Ukraine and "to fill it with concrete results." She said that Russian Foreign Ministry is "open to continuing contacts" with the US State Department, Tass reported.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that purpose of these contacts is "to specify the parameters of the Russia-US dialogue on various aspects of bilateral relations and further joint steps in the Ukrainian settlement process."

While meeting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said he hoped that the "war will be settled".

"These are tremendous sanctions. These are very big against their two big oil companies. And we hope that they won't be on for long. We hope that the war will be settled," he added.

Trump also noted his previous conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin had not led to any breakthroughs.

"Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don't go anywhere. They just don't go anywhere. He's fighting a war. He's in a war. It's two very competent sides, and that's the way war is. You never know with war, but I would say that it's time to make a deal," he emphasised.

Trump, on Tuesday, cancelled his proposed meeting with Putin in Budapest in Hungary, saying he doesn't "want to have a wasted meeting".

"We cancelled the meeting with President Putin. It just didn't feel right to me. It didn't feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So, I cancelled it, but we'll do it in the future," he noted.

--IANS

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