The Kremlin commented on publications in a number of foreign media outlets about anti-Russian sanctions. 

“We don’t know if it’s a duck or if it’s someone's purposeful sink, so I wouldn’t react to that.

A lot of everything now, both true and false, is being published.

I have not seen any indirect confirmation of the White House, "- said the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov.

Meanwhile, a Kremlin spokesman stressed that the American authorities are addicted to "such" sanctions exercises ":" In this regard, of course, the predictability of the American side leaves much to be desired. "

The day before, Dmitry Peskov called the emerging publications about new sanctions against Russia "a continuation of the information hysteria."

On the eve of the conversation between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, publications appeared in the Western media that the White House was preparing to introduce new restrictions against Moscow.

The reason - "aggression" against Kiev, in particular, the alleged preparation by the Russian side for the "invasion of Ukraine".

For example, CNN, citing "anonymous sources", reported that possible new US financial restrictions could affect "representatives of the Russian president's inner circle" and Russian energy producers.

In addition, the country will be disconnected from SWIFT.

In turn, Bloomberg also citing "anonymous sources" writes that the United States, together with its European allies, are considering the possibility of imposing sanctions aimed at complicating the conversion of rubles into dollars, which will affect the largest Russian banks and the Russian Direct Investment Fund. 

We add that last week, a number of Western media outlets, citing data from the American intelligence community and unnamed sources, published materials claiming that Russia is allegedly actively preparing for an "invasion of Ukraine."

At the same time, there will be an "attack" allegedly at the beginning of 2022, and up to 175 thousand Russian military personnel are involved in it.

Also on russian.rt.com Ducks of freedom: how the US is trying to convince European allies of Russia's imminent "invasion" of Ukraine

As Maria Zakharova, an official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Kommersant earlier, the United States is conducting a "special operation to escalate the situation around Ukraine, shifting responsibility to Russia."

According to her, Washington uses "classical Western tactics", but "the scale of impudence and lies" is impressive.

At the same time, the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov, in an interview with RT, called the messages about the allegedly impending invasion of Ukraine a duck.

“Indeed, the rhetoric sounds very aggressive from the American side and from the European capitals towards us.

We see numerous ducks thrown about the allegedly planned Russian aggression against Ukraine.

At the same time, we do not hear a single word addressed to Ukraine, not a single warning addressed to Kiev, so that they would not even think about starting a military settlement of the situation in the southeast, ”Peskov said.

"There is no real basis for sanctions"

As Dmitry Belik, a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, noted, the West is making a lot of efforts to put pressure on the Russian economy, but possible restrictions are unlikely to cause serious damage to it.

“Unfortunately, the West, with its powerful analytical apparatus, did not think of the main thing - it is easier to come to an agreement with Russia than to fight it on military or economic fronts.

What Ukrainian politicians are doing today is a clot of Nazism, and it is clearly not worth starting global wars, but as for the possibility of introducing new sanctions, after a while we will remember this as an unpleasant episode in our thousand-year history ", - said the interlocutor of RT.

Also on russian.rt.com "Controlled escalation": why the US is heating up the topic of Russia's allegedly impending attack on Ukraine

At the same time, the head of Sberbank, German Gref, commenting on the publications of Western media about possible anti-Russian sanctions, pointed out that they "cannot be enforced."

He called these messages "utter nonsense."

“I don’t even want to comment, there is no real basis for this.

I have never heard of anyone planning such a thing.

But even if they want to do it, it is simply impossible to do it, "TASS quotes him.

In turn, Sergei Tsekov, a member of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs from the Republic of Crimea, in a conversation with RT, called the allegations of Russia's "attack" on Ukraine speculation.

“They aggravate the situation, by and large do not think about analyzing the situation ... They chose this path - every day to talk about the fact that Russia is supposedly going to attack Ukraine, and agreed that this will happen in January.

This is nothing more than speculation ... Nobody is going to attack Ukraine, we know that.

They must show that they work every day, and every day they analyze something and issue such conclusions, "