Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko has described the latest sanctions of the United States and the European Union against Russia as counter-productive.
"Sanctions against the Russian Federation have never been productive but led to the aggravation of the political situation," she said to journalists in St. Petersburg on Sunday.
She said she took the latest round of sanctions with bewilderment and regret.
"I strongly hope that the situation is temporary, that the anti-Russian hysteria will stop and we will be able to speak constructively instead of the language of threats," she stressed.
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