The Kremlin expects that the proposal of Republicans of the House of representatives of the US Congress on new sanctions against Russia will not be implemented. But such impulses do not improve bilateral relations, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov is sure.
"Of course, we can only regret the new and new impulses that some individuals are trying to give to the general American policy," a Kremlin spokesman told reporters on Thursday. In his opinion, "this, of course, does not contribute to the normalization of bilateral relations." "We expect that these plans will remain at the level of statements and will not materialize in any way," Peskov said.
At the same time, the Kremlin states that Russian-American relations are being sacrificed in favor of the political interests of individual forces. "In general, of course, as the US election campaign develops, our country and bilateral Russian-American relations traditionally become a sacred sacrifice for American politicians, which must be made if you want to achieve any success in electoral affairs," the press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation stated. "We regret this," he said.
"We are watching reports of such speeches and proposals for new restrictions," Peskov said. He said: "We generally consider such restrictions illegal from the point of view of international law."
The head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Konstantin Kosachev said that, going about their domestic political interests, the United States with the next sanctions can worsen relations with Russia for decades.
"In order to satisfy their current domestic political needs, it is proposed to drive the relations of Russia and America to a level from which they will have to get out not even for years, but for decades," the Senator said.
According to him, the United States actually wants to turn into a state without diplomacy – official and parliamentary – which is only engaged in "threatening other states that are not ready to subordinate their interests to American ones, and hysterically considers such states as known enemies."
Deputy speaker of the State Duma Irina Yarovaya (United Russia) considers aggressive and unfounded the idea of Republicans of the House of representatives of the US Congress to introduce a tough package of anti-Russian sanctions, aimed at recognizing the Russian Federation as a "state sponsor of terrorism".
"The aggressive and unsubstantiated proposals of the US Congress in international politics are very similar to the criminal behavior of police officer Derek Chauvin (accused of the murder of African-American George Floyd-ed.). If the congressmen decided to compete with him in the manifestation of inadequacy, they need to more carefully assess the consequences of such insanity," her press service quotes the words of Yarovaya.
The Deputy Speaker of the State Duma also stressed that Russia has always fought terrorism and "will be implacable in this matter, acting in defense of peace and security." "The US has not only always ignored our country's proposal to create a broad anti-terrorist coalition, but also acted in violation of international norms. And now they are also trying to continue outright sabotage, making false statements against Russia," Yarovaya said.
The Republicans proposed on Wednesday to impose such tough sanctions against Russia, Iran and China, which, according to their version, have never been proposed before by the US legislature. This is stated in the 120-page report "Strengthening America and Countering Global Threats", published by the Republican research Committee, which includes about 150 congressmen. The authors of the report, on which work has been going on for about a year and a half, "offer more than 130 solutions to combat the most aggressive opponents of America in the world", including Russia, Iran and China. The package of anti-Russian sanctions may include restrictions on Russian oil and gas projects and sovereign debt, "Russian-controlled entities" in other countries, and recognition of the Russian Federation as a "state sponsor of terrorism".
In addition, the congressmen recommend imposing restrictions against the United Front Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, as well as the leadership of the CCP, including members of the Politburo, in connection with the situation in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region and Hong Kong. The Republicans propose using restrictions to block additional sectors of the Iranian economy and impose sanctions against "persons controlled by Iran in the region", including representatives of armed groups in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria.
The initiatives proposed in the document are of a recommendatory nature and are not a bill submitted to Congress.
The Russian side has repeatedly stated that the United States would not achieve anything from the Russian Federation by means of sanctions pressure, except for further deterioration of relations between the two countries.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Michael Metzel / TASS
Based on materials from RIA Novosti, TASS