Responding to the Biden administration’s imposition of new sanctions on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry pledged retaliation on the principle of “reciprocity,” though “not necessarily symmetrically.”

That might sound like boring diplomatic jargon, but Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime has a specific motive for its reference to asymmetrical responses. This latest statement came from Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, but Russia’s ambassador to the European Union used nearly the same language last week, when he warned the EU against new sanctions.