Russia watching for Western sanctions, says they would hit economy

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Friday it was monitoring reports of a possible ban on exports to Russia by Western countries, and that new sanctions would damage the global economy.

"We are carefully monitoring this, we are aware that both the U.S. and the EU are actively considering new sanctions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "We believe that both the current sanctions against the Russian Federation and the new additional steps that the US and the EU may be thinking about now will, of course, also hit the global economy. Therefore, this may lead to an increase in the trend towards a worldwide economic crisis."

Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that the Group of Seven (G7) countries are considering a near-total ban on exports to Russia, citing Japanese government sources. Bloomberg News said on Thursday the United States and Ukraine's allies were considering "an outright ban on most exports to Russia". That report said officials from G7 nations were discussing the idea before a summit meeting in Japan next month.

Russia has been hit by successive waves of Western sanctions since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. "We must not forget that no country in the world has faced such a volume of sanctions as we have. Therefore, we are adapting, developing, making long-term plans, but also taking into account the dangers that lie behind the thoughts of our opponents," Peskov said.