MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. Moscow reserves the right to a tit-for-tat response to the European Union’s decision to include several Russian citizens on the sanctions list in relation to the Skripal case, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated on Monday.

"The accusations against Russia and our citizens with regards to the Skripal case do not withstand criticism," the ministry stressed. "We reserve the right to retaliatory measures in response to this unfriendly act."

The ministry added that the campaign launched by the British government in the wake of the Skripal incident pursues domestic policy goals in the context of Brexit negotiations. "It is telling that its new splash has coincided with another wave of the Brexit negotiations crisis," the statement says.

"We confirm the principal position on the unlawfulness of introducing unilateral restrictive measures bypassing the UN Security Council. We see the establishment and the practical launch of the aforementioned mechanism as a sign of the European Union’s disrespect towards the Chemical Weapons Convention," the ministry added. "Through this, Brussels has once again demonstrated a disregard towards the collectively developed mechanisms of international cooperation. Exchanging them for unilateral illegitimate instruments of a punitive nature, including the granting of attributive functions to the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons - TASS), may lead to an increase of political arbitrariness in the international relations and an erosion of international law," the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.

New sanctions

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.

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.