Russia's UN envoy sees 'no sensation' from US sanctions

Russia's UN envoy on Wednesday dismissed new US sanctions against his country as "no sensation" and said Moscow will continue to work with the US administration despite the punitive measures.

"It's no sensation. We expected that," Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters when asked about President Donald Trump's decision to sign a bill that will target Russia's energy sector and weapons exporters.

"It's not our habit to be resentful children and to get offended with anything like that."

Nebenzia said Trump had no option but to sign the bill under pressure from the US Congress, which he said had based the legislation on "a host of absurd accusations about Russia."

"It is harming our relations inevitably, but we will be working in conditions that exist in the hope that it will turn (around) one day," he added.

"Those who invited this bill, if they were thinking that they might change our policy, they were wrong, as history many times proved."

The sanctions seek to penalize the Kremlin for meddling in the 2016 US presidential election -- which Trump won -- and Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Source: AFP