[ad_1]
“We believe that such measures are completely unacceptable as they are very damaging to the already poor relations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters after the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Moscow.
A Kremlin spokesman added that “the poisoning allegations and the Federal Security Service responsible for it are outrageous.”
On the eve, Russia warned it would “repel aggression” after Washington imposed sanctions on Kremlin officials for the Navaln poisoning.
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on the head of the Russian FSB and six others related to the near-fatal poisoning of a nerve-paralyzing substance by prominent Kremlin critic A. Navaln and their subsequent imprisonment.
Washington coordinated with the EU after US intelligence concluded that Moscow had organized the Navaln poisoning in August.
EU sanctions against Alexander Bastyrkin, head of Russia’s investigation committee, Viktor Zolotov, head of the National Guard, Attorney General Igor Krasnov and Alexander Kalashnikov, director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), also came into force on Tuesday. .
“We will continue to defend our national interests in a systematic and resolute manner and to reject aggression,” said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry. Echoing the comments of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, he added that Moscow would react on the basis of “reversibility and not necessarily symmetry.”
Ms. Zakharova accused the United States of “trying to develop the image of an external enemy” and thus diverting attention from internal problems.
“We urge our colleagues not to play with fire,” he said in a statement released Tuesday night.
The specific sanctions announced Tuesday show a tougher stance on US President Joe Biden and complement a string of EU and US sanctions imposed on Russia since 2014, when Moscow seceded from Ukraine and annexed Crimea.
Navaln was flown to Germany for treatment after the poisoning, but returned to Russia in January and was immediately arrested and later sent to a correctional colony.
More photos (2)
Photo by TASS / Scanpix
D. Peskov: Western attitude towards Russia has not changed since the Cold War
The West’s approach to Russia has not changed since Winston Churchill Fulton’s speech, which ushered in the Cold War, and has even been supplemented with more confrontational details, Russian President Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
Speaking to journalists, D. Peskov pointed out that Churchill Fulton’s speech, delivered 75 years ago, should never be forgotten, as it is important in determining the entire epoch.
“This speech, among other things, determined the attitude of the entire chain of Western countries towards the USSR and the Western worldview towards it,” he said.
“Much of that worldview, unfortunately, has not changed and has even been filled with more conflictive roosters. Therefore, it is necessary to remember this, it is necessary to remember that all the mechanisms of confrontation created, such as NATO, work, work, they were created not for peaceful interaction, but for serious contradictions, ”said D. Peskov.
He stressed that these structures continue to operate against Russia and “oblige us not to lose vigilance, to take all necessary measures to defend our country.”
Relations between Russia and NATO have been strained in recent years, and the US-led military alliance has frozen relations with Moscow following the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
In September last year, the Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, accused NATO of concentrating forces on the Russian border.
In a report released late last year, the Alliance emphasized that Moscow is likely to remain a major threat to the security of NATO members for the next decade.
At the time, the United States on Tuesday announced sanctions against the director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and six others linked to the near-fatal poisoning of a nerve-paralyzing substance by prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navaln and his subsequent incarceration.
EU sanctions against Alexander Bastyrkin, head of Russia’s investigation committee, Viktor Zolotov, head of the National Guard, Attorney General Igor Krasnov and Alexander Kalashnikov, director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), also came into force on Tuesday. .
Washington coordinated with the EU after US intelligence concluded that Moscow had organized the Navaln poisoning in August.
Following Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea in 2014, the EU and the US announced a series of sanctions against Russia against Russia.
