Russia Too Big To Be Isolated, West Acting Like Bandits: Kremlin On Sanctions Over Ukraine Invasion

The Kremlin spokesperson further said that if the United States imposed sanctions on Russia’s energy exports, then it would give a considerable jolt to the energy markets.

A View Of The Grand Kremlin Palace And The Russian Foreign Ministry Building. (File Photo/ Getty)

New Delhi: In the wake of the sanctions imposed on Russia by the western nations after its invasion of Ukraine, Kremlin on Saturday lashed out saying the West is behaving like bandits and that Russia is too big to be isolated as the world is much larger than just United States and Europe.

According to a report by news agency Reuters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the West was engaged in an ‘economic banditry’ against Russia and without divulging further details, added that Moscow would hit back.

“This does not mean Russia is isolated. The world is too big for Europe and America to isolate a country, and even more so a country as big as Russia. There are many more countries in the world,” Reuters quoted Peskov as saying.

The Kremlin spokesperson further said that if the United States imposed sanctions on Russia’s energy exports, then it would give a considerable jolt to the energy markets.

The Kremlin also defended Russia's new legislation as per which people could be jailed for up to 15 years for publishing ‘fake news’ on its military, and said that the country was in the face of ‘an information war’.

The newly passed law, that gives Moscow much stronger powers to crack down on independent journalism, has forced the BBC, Bloomberg, and other foreign media to suspend reporting in the country.

Russia has also blocked social media platform Facebook and some other websites on Friday as part of the crackdown.

"The law was necessary and needed urgently because of the unprecedented -- not even campaign -- but information war that has been unleashed against our country," Reuters quoted Peskov as saying.

Earlier on Friday, Kremlin had called upon the Russians to rally around president Vladimir Putin amid the ongoing conflict between Russian and Ukraine.

“Now is not the time to be divided… Now is the time to unite, to unite around our president,” said Peskov as quoted by news agency AFP.

"Many support the president, sincerely the president. There are those who completely misunderstand the essence of what is happening," he added.

Notably, the ongoing conflict between the two countries reached the 10^th day on Saturday as Russia continued to launch its attack on cities across the East European nation.