WASHINGTON, August 21. /TASS/. The new sanctions that the US introduced over an incident involving blogger Alexey Navalny prove that Washington continues to pursue a policy aimed at worsening relations with Moscow, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov told reporters, when asked to comment on the new restrictions.
"The actions of the US side confirm that the administration continues to blindly follow the course of destroying relations with Russia. They don’t think about the consequences. Instead of focusing on real threats and problems of global security, they are engaged in moralizing, seeking to cling to the country's pseudo-leading role in democracy and international law. It is unlikely that Washington's unconstructive steps will help strengthen global stability in such a difficult time for all states," the Russian embassy’s Facebook page quoted the envoy as saying.
According to Antonov, the new sanctions were introduced under a completely false pretext. "No evidence of the use of chemical warfare agents was provided. Moreover, Russia, in contrast to the United States, back in 2017, completely eliminated all its [chemical weapons] stocks," the Russian ambassador said.
On Friday, the US imposed restrictions against nine Russian individuals and four entities who, according to Washington, were involved in the incident around blogger Alexey Navalny.
Navalny was rushed to a local hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk on August 20, 2020, after collapsing on a Moscow-bound flight from Tomsk. He was later airlifted to Berlin and admitted to the Charite hospital. The German authorities claimed that the blogger had been affected by a toxic agent belonging to the Novichok family. Moscow has repeatedly pointed out that no poisonous substances were detected in Navalny’s body prior to his transfer to Berlin.