Kremlin spokesman says United States tries to squeeze competitors in global arms trade

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday 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 U.S. sanctions law punishing Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. 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. (Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Polina Ivanova and Andrew Osborn)