US wants Russia out of arms trade: Kremlin

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says that by imposing sanctions on buyers of Russian weapons, and on people associated with the Russian military, the United States is trying to squeeze out competitors in the global arms trade.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on the Chinese military on Thursday for buying fighter jets and missile systems from Russia, in breach of a sweeping US sanctions law punishing Moscow for meddling in the 2016 US election, something Russia denies.

Peskov called the new sanctions hostile and unpredictable but did not say how Russia would respond.

"They use this practice so often that one would trip up reacting to each new instance," the spokesman said.