MOSCOW, June 20 (RIA Novosti) – Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated Russia could impose retaliatory sanctions against Australia, but that the measures would not affect Russia's G20 plans, Russia’s Izvestiya newspaper reported Friday.
“It won’t affect Russia’s activities within the G20 At the same time Russia still needs to get confirmation of Australia’s sanctions, and how they will reflect on participation in an international framework. I don’t think there’s clarity right now on these issues. The reciprocity principle still applies to these issues,” Peskov said, according to the newspaper.
On Thursday, Australia’s Foreign Ministry announced financial sanctions and travel bans against 50 Russian individuals and 11 companies “who have been instrumental in the Russian threat to Ukraine’s sovereignty” have gone into effect. Australia first stated its intention to introduce sanctions against Russia in March in response to Russia’s reunification with Crimea. Australia banned 12 individuals from entering the country then. In May, Australia decided to add another 38 Russian individuals and 11 companies to the sanctions list.
The individuals targeted by the sanctions include Deputy Prime Ministers Dmitry Rogozin and Dmitry Kozak, Federation Council Chairperson Valentina Matviyenko, State Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin, presidential aides Vladislav Surkov and Sergei Glazyev, head of state-run Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin, as well as acting head of Crimea Sergei Aksenov and several leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics.
The sanctions list also includes Rossiya Bank, InvestCapitalBank, SMP Bank, Avia Group Nord and Chernomornaftogaz among other companies.
The next G20 summit is to take place in Brisbane, Australia in November. The Australian government earlier stated that Russia could be suspended from participation in the summit.
The US and EU member states have also introduced sanctions against Russian government officials, entrepreneurs and companies. The US has taken a harder stance on sanctions than the EU, whose trade volume with Russia is more than ten times larger than trade between Russia and the US. Moscow has repeatedly stated that the language of sanctions is “inappropriate and counterproductive” and warned its Western partners about the “boomerang effect” that sanctions would have.
