WASHINGTON (AP) — The Russian government says it’s preparing to retaliate after new U.S. sanctions against Moscow for allegedly interfering in the 2016 American presidential election.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, says the Kremlin is responding calmly to the new sanctions and — in his words — “taking this in our stride.” But he says Russia has “begun preparing retaliatory measures.”
Ryabkov suggests the Trump administration timed the sanctions to come ahead of this weekend’s presidential election in Russia.
The official is quoted by the Russian state news agency Tass as saying that the U.S. action is “tied to U.S. internal disorder, tied of course to our electoral calendar.”
