The new draft law on sanctions against Russia does not mean the economic war.

Axar.az reports that the new US law tightening economic sanctions against Moscow, Tehran and Pyongyang is not a declaration of trade war against Russia, a senior US Department of State official told reporters on Thursday.

"No, of course [not]. Look, it is not a declaration of war," the official replied when asked whether the legal action, as a statutory measure, was a declaration of a trade war.

"Certain individuals from certain Governments say such extreme things," the US diplomat added.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a Facebook post on August 2 that the US government had actually declared a "fully-fledged trade war" on Russia by tightening sanctions against it. "It is the death of hopes to improve our relations with the new American administration," he wrote.