MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. Chairman of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Committee for Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky finds the EU’s sanctions against the alleged GRU officers unlawful and illogical.
Earlier, the Council of Europe introduced sanctions against the four "GRU officers", namely against head and deputy head of the Russian General Staff's Main Intelligence Department (GRU) in the wake of the Skripal incident within the new regulations of the council on introducing restrictive measures against those responsible for production and spread of chemical weapons.
"The new sanctions of the European Union "in the name of Petrov and Boshirov" are completely unlawful and cannot be described by logic. The basic principle is, once again, the "highly likely" principle, which is, of course, a shame," Slutsky told journalists on Monday.
He noted that there had been "no solid proof" of anyone from the Russian General Staff’s Main Intelligence Department being involved in the incident. "However, we have already witnessed the major diplomatic scandal due to the Skripal case, as well as the expansion of the anti-Russian sanctions package "for the use of chemical weapons". At the same time, no one took note of the fact that not only did our country destroy all chemical weapons back in 2017, it also demonstrated this to the international community. This is why to groundlessly accuse Russia of this is the height of cynicism, I would say," the Russian MP said.
According to the EU Official Journal published on Monday, the EU introduced sanctions against GRU Head Igor Kostyukov and GRU First Deputy Head Vladimir Alekseyev.
The EU blacklist also includes Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin (known as Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov) whom the European Union calls "GRU officers" and accuses of poisoning former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
New sanctions regime on chemical weapons
The EU Council adopted the new regime of restrictive measures on October 15, 2018 to address the use and proliferation of chemical weapons.
Under the new regime, the EU will be able to impose sanctions on persons and entities involved in the development and use of chemical weapons anywhere, regardless of their nationality and location.
The restrictive measures will target persons and entities who are directly responsible for the development and use of chemical weapons, and also those who provide financial, technical or material support, as well as those who assist, encourage or are associated with them.
The process of elaborating a new mechanism of imposing sanctions was launched as part of a decision of the EU summit held in late June 2018. The decision stipulates the need to create a new regime of EU restrictive measures aimed against the proliferation of chemical weapons.
The decision was adopted a day after a special session of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), convened on the initiative of the United Kingdom and the United States over the Skripal case, and also in the wake of accusations of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government troops in Syria, completed its work in The Hague.