MOSCOW, July 27. /TASS/. The European Union considers retaliation to the US bill expanding Russia sanctions by declaring them invalid within the union and by banning European banks’ loans to US companies, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said in a televised interview with the Rossiya’24 channel on Wednesday.

Moscow to frame stance on new sanctions once US bill becomes law

"The talk is still ongoing about some serious measures as, for instance, announcing that this US law is invalid within the European Union. The second step is to halt financing US companies by European banks," Chizhov said, noting that those measures could not be compared with the amount of possible damage to European businesses in case the bill would be implemented in its current version.

European business was considerably alarmed by the situation with the anti-Russian sanctions, the Russian envoy said.

"They do not include just energy companies directly engaged in collaboration with the Russian side, but many, many others," he said, adding that recently the EU "has been doing everything possible to minimize the damage" from sanctions but had not achieved tangible success.

The bill imposing tougher restrictions on Russia, Iran and North Korea is likely to be approved, Chizhov added.

"Nobody can expect that the bill will not pass through the US Senate," he said. "Besides, nobody can expect that President [Donald] Trump will opt for not signing it into law. Actually, Trump is in a hopeless situation."

Russia clarifies to the European Union its position on fresh US sanctions imposed on Russia and in particular, informs Brussels of repercussions stemming from the bill, Vladimir Chizhov said.

"The gist of a diplomat’s work does involve contacts, clarification of our stance, clarification of those repercussions that might stem from [adoption of the bill slapping more sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea]," Chizhov said, noting that further bilateral collaboration between the EU and Russia would depend on Brussel’s response to the new US sanctions.

"I can put it baldly, the future vector of our cooperation with the EU will depend on how the European Union will behave in this situation," Chizhov said.