The Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union once again sanctioned Russia over the phony Alexsy Navalny issue.
In a statement denouncing the move, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, “The decision to prepare new illegitimate unilateral restrictions against Russian citizens approved by the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union on February 22 of this year over a contrived excuse causes disappointment. Another opportunity was missed by the European Union to rethink a course of artificial connections, sanctions and pressure in relations with Russia which over the past years has demonstrated its complete inadequacy. Instead, following the bloc’s discipline and anti-Russian stereotypes, Brussels again instinctively pushes the inoperative sanctions ‘button.’ Moreover, defying logic, first a political decision is made and then it is planned to arbitrarily find candidates for it,” the statement noted.
The statement went on to say that the adversaries of improved relations with Russia are guided by a political situation and not by “adherence to protection of human rights and basic liberties theatrically declared by them. It is typical that the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime established by the EU Council in December 2020 just as the two previous EU sanctions mechanisms—on cyberattacks and chemical incidents—above all will be used against our compatriots. Behind Brussels’ attempts to position these illegitimate tools as having some ‘horizontal’ and ‘global’ character one can easily see their anti-Russian essence as a means of implementing the policy of ‘containment’ of our country,” the ministry explained.
