MOSCOW, March 25 (RIA Novosti) – Leaders of the Group of Seven economies have warned Moscow it will face damaging economic sanctions in the event of further escalation of the crisis in Ukraine following Crimea’s reunification with Russia.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said holding talks with Russia while threatening sanctions was inappropriate and counterproductive. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he hoped the West was aware that such pressure would have no effect.
“The G8 is an informal club, no one issues membership cards and no one can expel members by definition,” Lavrov told journalists at the Hague Monday, adding that major world issues could be discussed at G20 meetings and other international forums. “If our Western partners believe that this format (G8) has exhausted itself, let it be. We are not clinging to it.”
The G7 leaders, who met on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in The Hague Monday, said they have suspended their participation in the G8 until Russia changes course. They agreed to hold their own summit in Brussels instead of attending a planned G8 meeting in June in the Russian Olympic venue of Sochi, on the Black Sea coast near Crimea.
"We remain ready to intensify actions including coordinated sectoral sanctions that will have an increasingly significant impact on the Russian economy, if Russia continues to escalate this situation," G7 leaders said in a joint statement.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister criticized the US sanctions saying they reflect Washington’s reluctance to accept reality and its desire to impose its “one-sided, unbalanced and irrelevant approaches. “
The US, EU, Canada and Japan have imposed sanctions against Moscow over its stance on Crimea, which became part of Russia last week following a referendum that saw over 96 percent of voters in the region support the measure.
The Russian Foreign Ministry imposed sanctions against senior US and Canadian officials as a proportional response.
