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UK’s sanctions against Russian interior ministry officials senseless - Russian lawmaker

London has made yet another step towards degrading Russian-British relations, he noted

MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. The United Kingdom’s sanctions against senior officials of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Ministry have no sense because these people cannot run any businesses or have any assets outside Russia under national laws, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Monday.

"Personal sanctions imposed against Russian Prosecutor General’s Office and Interior Ministry officials in the United Kingdom under the so-called Magnitsky Amendment cans be seen as an absolutely pointless measure and another Russophobic nonsense," Leonid Slutsky, said chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house. "Under Russian laws, they are banned to have foreign financial assets or run business in the United Kingdom, like elsewhere outside Russia. At least, as long as they are in office."

"London has made yet another step towards degrading Russian-British relations," he noted. "I am convinced that any restrictions imposed in bypassing of the United Nations are anachronistic, especially amid the ongoing pandemic. Not a single state has dropped its course only because the United States or the United Kingdom is brandishing the ‘sanction baton.’"

"It has never worked with Russia and will never work. Naturally, as is practiced in diplomacy, Moscow reserves the right to response measures. I have no doubts that a well-balanced and timely will be taken," he stressed.

Earlier in the day, the United Kingdom said it was imposing personal sanctions against 25 Russian nationals London holds responsible for human rights violation practices in Russia. Among these 25 persons are chief of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin, Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin, former Deputy Interior Minister Alexei Anichin, judges, investigators, and interior ministry officials. These persons are barred from entering the United Kingdom, as well as from doing business both in that country and with British go-betweens. Apart from that, their assets in the United Kingdom, if any, will be frozen.

The sanctions are imposed under the so-called Magnitsky Amendment to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act that was passed by the British parliament in May 2018 and was to come into effect after the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.

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