US sanctions won't harm Turkey, Russian senator says

The U.S. sanctions will not cause any harm to Turkey, Russian Senator Vladimir Jabarov said on Tuesday.

The U.S. restrictive measures are aiming to ease the public opinion, Jabarov said in an interview with the Russia's state-run RIA news agency.

"There will be no real threat to Turkey from these sanctions, they will not cause any damage to the country. The purpose of these sanctions is only to calm public opinion in the U.S. and nothing more," he added.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against two Turkish ministries and three senior government officials over Turkey’s anti-terror Operation Peace Spring, launched on Oct. 9 to eliminate terrorists from northern Syria in order to secure borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees and ensure Syria’s territorial integrity.

The U.S. sanctions serve to U.S. President Donald Trump as a mean to solve his own problems, Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Council of Federation International Committee, said in a separate statement.

"The imposition by the U.S. Treasury of the sanctions previously announced by Trump against three Turkish ministers and two ministries, in my opinion, finally confirmed what many in the world had already guessed: sanctions are a mean of domestic, not foreign policy of the United States. They do not achieve the nominally stated goals, but in one way or another solve Trump's own problems with his political opponents," Kosachev wrote on his Facebook page.

Ankara wants to clear northern Syria east of the Euphrates River of the terrorist PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the PYD/YPG.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union -- has been responsible for deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.