Updated 5:54 p.m. Moscow Time
BRUSSELS, September 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is not ready yet to unveil specific retaliatory measures to counter new EU sanctions, but certainly views such a response as an option, economic development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Friday.
"On our part, we do not want to talk about some kind of response, but we keep it in mind," Ulyukayev said.
The minister stressed that sanctions are not helping to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.
The European Union announced in its Official Journal on Friday it was imposing a new round of sanctions on Russia, including those targeting the country’s major defense and energy companies.
Russia has prepared a new package of retaliatory measures to Western sanctions, that include embargoes on imports of secondhand cars and textile products, presidential aide Andrei Belousov said Thursday.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow regrets the European Union's decision to impose new sanctions against Russia, stressing that Brussels fails to see the reality of the situation in eastern Ukraine and the steps both sides are taking toward peace.
The Kremlin official referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s peace plan, which he proposed to the conflicting sides two days before Kiev and the eastern regions of Ukraine reached a ceasefire agreement on September 5 in Minsk.
