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Lawmaker blasts Washington’s newly-proposed, ‘insane’ sanctions on Russia

Earlier, a group of US legislators put forward a new bill, obliging the Trump administration to slap new restrictions on Moscow

© AP Photo/J. David Ake

MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. The US’ planned sanctions against Russia are insane and reckless, Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachev wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.

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Earlier, a group of US legislators put forward a new bill, obliging the Trump administration to slap new restrictions on Moscow. Democratic Senator from New Jersey Robert Menendez and Republican Senator from South Carolina Lindsey Graham authored the initiative.

The Russian lawmaker proceeded to excoriate the US by saying, "the Americans dream about being exclusive in everything," he further criticized them by stating, "they need to somehow compensate for their $22 trillion national debt and wasted destinies of many people. And nothing is left besides total hegemony and other tools for covering up their own defeats. Therefore, they come up with insane and reckless sanctions," the legislator wrote.

According to Kosachev, Senators Menendez and Graham have unveiled another "bone-rattling bill against Russia" justifying it by claiming it is needed to foil ‘meddling’ in US elections, thwart cyberattacks on American infrastructure, remove Russia from Ukraine, and stop efforts to create chaos in Syria.

The Russian senator stressed that these statements were made by politicians whose country interferes in all elections in Russia and throughout the world, while carrying out cyber attacks against Russia’s infrastructure and fully bending Ukraine to its will, by participating in all failed political and economic endeavors of Kiev’s current authorities, including provocations against Russia. He also accused Washington of bringing "chaos to Syria back in 2011 after creating turmoil in Iraq and Libya, even further strengthening the monster of radical Islamism that had been birthed in Afghanistan long before that."

The US legislation stipulates introducing sanctions against 24 agents of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), whom Washington accuses of being linked to the November 2018 Kerch Strait incident, when Russia detained 24 Ukrainian seamen over violating the rules of passage. The legislators suggest restrictions on transactions with Russian sovereign bonds and also sanctions against energy projects by Russian state companies abroad and certain banks. The authors of the document also call for introducing a requirement for two-thirds of the United States Senate to vote on leaving NATO. Besides, the document outlines measures aimed at easing the procedures of transferring US weapons to NATO members and reducing their dependence on Russian goods. Last year, both senators sought to pass legislation with similar measures but to no avail.

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