Russia won’t be blackmailed, Putin says / US hostility to Russia jeopardizes global stability

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Washington that further tensions over Ukraine could threaten global stability and that his country would not be blackmailed by sanctions.

Putin made the comments during an interview with the Serbian daily Politika on Wednesday, ahead of a brief visit to the Serbian capital Belgrade scheduled for Thursday.

“How can we talk about de-escalation in Ukraine while the decisions on new sanctions are introduced almost simultaneously with the agreements on the peace process?” Reuters quoted him as saying.

“We hope that our partners will realize the futility of attempts to blackmail Russia and remember what consequences discord between major nuclear powers could bring for strategic stability,” he added.

The Russian president went on to say that Russia is ready to develop constructive cooperation based on the principles of equality and genuine consideration of mutual interests.

Putin is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the Italian city of Milan on Friday.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said resetting relations with the United States is “impossible” while Western sanctions remain in force, slamming the punitive measures as “destructive” and “stupid”.

Tensions between Russia and the West heightened after Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea joined the Russian Federation following a referendum in March.

Relations were strained further after Ukraine launched military operations in mid-April to silence pro-Russia protests in the country’s mainly Russian speaking regions in eastern Ukraine.

The US and the European Union accuse Russia of destabilizing Ukraine and have slapped a number of sanctions against Russian and pro-Russia figures. Moscow, however, rejects the accusation.
http://indian.ruvr.ru/news/2014_10_16/Russia-won-t-be-blackmailed-Putin-says-4004/
16/10/14
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"We hope that our partners will realize the futility of attempts to blackmail Russia and remember what consequences discord between major nuclear powers could bring for strategic stability," Putin said in remarks published by the Serbian newspaper Politika on Wednesday.

In September, U.S. President Barack Obama said before the UN General Assembly that Russia has been a key threat to the world, second only to the Ebola virus and ahead of the extremist group of Islamic State.

"Together with the sanctions against entire sectors of our economy, this approach can be called nothing but hostile," the Kremlin press service quoted him as saying on the eve of his official visit to Belgrade.

Noting the attempts to isolate Russia have been "absurd and illusory," the president said western countries will have difficult time trying to restore their business reputation.

"Decrease of mutual trust would negatively affect international business climate as a whole and European and U.S. businesses in Russia in particular," he said, suggesting other countries think twice before entrusting their assets to U.S. financial institutions.

Meanwhile, Putin added Russia is ready for constructive cooperation based on equality and taking into account each other's interests.

On Wednesday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also said a reset of Russia-U.S. relations was impossible if sanctions against Moscow remain in place.

 [Xinhua - china.org.cn]