Kremlin to "Act Wisely" if US Follows Through on Sanctions Threats

LOCAL NEWS

• Kremlin says Russia will act wisely if the US implements sanctions on 35 Russian citizens as outlined in the Defense budget bill.
  • Says, however, "it is difficult to understand the tendency behind these sanctions after what Putin & Biden spoke about in Geneva". This comes after the US Lower House supported the motion for sanctions last week with the vote moving to the Senate
• Kremlin says Gazprom is fully meeting is obligations RE gas supply to Europe and is ready to export more as the energy crunch deepens. Peskov slammed US demands to boost transit via Ukraine, saying EU consumers are its main priority and comments from the US are "nothing but propaganda"
• Putin to hold meeting with Russian Govt & Security council today to discuss measures to improve the system of strategic planning in Russia and long-term socio-economic interest of the development of Russia.
  • Putin will meet with PM Mishustin & Deputy PMs on the matter. The Security Council meeting will be the first in 6-months with the prior meeting discussing Cybersecurity
• Kremlin says Kiev's unwillingness to comply with Minsk-2 is the main obstacle to a Putin-Zelensky meeting. Kremlin stressed that "active attempts are taken by the ministries and political advisors to revive this process", however, "Ukraine wants to replace the Minsk agreements with something else without naming this"
• In August, balances on foreign currency accounts decreased by $ 700 million to $ 56.6 billion in dollar equivalent – falling by $ 5.1 billion since the start of 2021. This is the lowest value since the autumn of 2010 ($ 55.2 billion)