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EU jeopardizes security cooperation by its anti-Russian sanctions - Moscow

It said that the EU only harms itself by supporting the United States in the sanctions issue

MOSCOW, July 26, /ITAR-TASS/. The European Union jeopardized international security cooperation when it agreed with Washington’s policy regarding sanctions against Russia over events in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday in connection with new anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the EU.

“The additional sanctions list is direct proof that the EU countries have set a course for complete termination of interaction with Russia in international and regional security issues, including the fight against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, organized crime and other new challenges and threats,” the ministry said.

It said that the EU only harms itself by supporting the United States in the sanctions issue.

“We are convinced that such decisions will be enthusiastically perceived by the terrorist International,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “What it failed to do over the past decades - to drive a wedge in the ranks of the international community - has been easily done in Brussels.”

“And it is Brussels that takes the entire responsibility for this step made against the backdrop of a sharp deterioration of the international situation, including in Afghanistan, in the Middle East, Northern Africa and other regions,” it said.

The ministry also noted that the sanctions expansion shows that the EU “has become totally addicted to Washington and Kiev fairytales about events taking place in Ukraine” while depriving itself of an alternative and objective source of information.

“Do they realize in the EU capitals what these irresponsible steps, be it in the political or economic spheres, may lead to?” the Russian foreign policy department said.

The EU’s Official Journal published on Friday a new version of the EU’s blacklist of persons subject to EU visa bans and asset freezes over "actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine."

A total of 15 individuals and 18 companies, including Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov and head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, were added to the list.