Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova. Photo: TASS In this regard, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova expressed: “If I understand their message correctly, does that mean that NATO has in fact expressed a desire to be friends? “It’s time for them to decide: either they stop coming up with spy stories, which they use as an excuse to impose sanctions, or it’s no surprise that they find themselves on the list. Russia’s list of unfriendly countries,” Zakharova said. Reportedly, in May, Russia announced that Moscow had officially considered the United States and the Czech Republic as “unfriendly” countries. With this decision, the US diplomatic missions in Russia will no longer be able to hire local staff, while the Czech missions can only hire up to 19 people. Earlier, on April 23, Russian President Putin also signed a decree on measures to deal with the “unfriendly actions” of some countries, in the context of increasing tensions between Russia and Western countries. . In an interview with Sputnik news agency, Russian Deputy Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that the Russian government never included any country on the unfriendly list arbitrarily, but on the basis of careful analysis of all side. However, Mr. Ryabkov said, Moscow is open to the possibility of reviewing this list. Also according to Russian Deputy Minister Sergey Ryabkov, especially for the US, in order to be removed from the list of unfriendly countries, Washington must immediately stop its hostile policy towards Russia and not interfere in Moscow’s internal affairs.