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Senior MP blasts US blacklist as ‘sucker punch’ on Crimean lawmakers

The US Treasury earlier put six members of Russia’s State Duma from the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol on the list of sanctioned individuals

MOSCOW, November 15. /TASS/. Head of Russia’s State Duma International Affairs Committee, Leonid Slutsky, has described the expansion of US personal sanctions and putting members of the lower house of parliament from Crimea and the city of Sevastopol on US blacklists as nothing more than a sucker punch.

"It's like throwing a sucker punch as you're leaving the ring," he commented to reporters on Tuesday.

In his view, the newly-imposed sanctions cannot have any adverse effect on Russia. "It is of no interest to Russia," he stated. "We hope, even though we do not find consolation in groundless illusions, that the US stance towards Russia will change in a constructive way in the foreseeable future."

The US Treasury earlier put six members of Russia’s State Duma from the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol on the list of sanctioned individuals. The blacklist includes five lawmakers from Crimea: Konstantin Bakharev, Ruslan Balbek, Andrei Kozenko, Svetlana Savchenko and Pavel Shperov as well as MP from Sevastopol, Dmitry Belik.

Prior to that, these politicians had been placed on the EU’s sanctions list.