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New US anti-Russian sanctions are contrived, Foreign Ministry says

On Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury included a number of Russian people and companies, connected to the head of Chechnya, whom the US authorities consider involved in "serious violations of human rights" in sanctions lists
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Russian Foreign Ministry Press Office/TASS
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
© Russian Foreign Ministry Press Office/TASS

MOSCOW, December 11. /TASS/. New US sanctions against Russian people and companies, connected to head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, are contrived, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary published Friday.

"This new restrictions package, as is a custom with the Americans, is contrived and not based on evidence. This is a clunky PR move, aimed at peddling the image of Russians as ‘human rights violators’," she said.

"Those who made those lists have no shortage of imagination," she continued. "They managed to bring an entire football club, well known beyond Russia, under these restrictions."

Zakharova recalled that, previously, the US imposed sanctions against Moscow’s Tchaika swimming pool.

"Apparently, because it is located near Moscow’s Crimean Bridge," she quipped. "One day, we will ask our American colleagues what exactly in the georgraphy of our country made them uneasy about a football club."

On Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury included a number of Russian people and companies, connected to the head of Chechnya, whom the US authorities consider involved in "serious violations of human rights" in sanctions lists. Kadyrov himself, previously hit by restrictions, has been blacklisted under the "global Magnitsky Act."

The same act also imposes restrictions against the Akhmat Football Club, the Akhmat Absolute Championship company, the Akhmat Kadyrov Foundation, the Megastroyinvest company, the Akhmat mixed martial arts club, and the Chechnya Mineral Waters company. The US authorities believe that all these companies either belong to or are controlled by Ramzan Kadyrov.