MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. The United States has disrupted the transfer of Russia's voluntary contribution to the budget of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by imposing illegal unilateral sanctions, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"As a result of the unilateral coercive measures against Gazprombank imposed by the US Treasury Department in November, Russia has faced obstacles in making payments to the budgets of a number of international organizations," the ministry pointed out. "Another example of how such unlawful restrictive measures harm not only and not so much our country was the disruption of the transfer of funds from Russia's voluntary contribution to the budget of the International Committee of the Red Cross," the statement said.
The ministry recalled that Russia has been participating in the financing of key programs of the International Committee of the Red Cross for many years. "Our country has repeatedly made one-time contributions to the committee's budget, including for humanitarian aid to the needy population of Syria, Nagorno-Karabakh and Donbass, as well as for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic," it noted.
The ministry also noted that, in accordance with the Russian government's order, voluntary payments to the ICRC's budget have been made on an annual basis since 2018.
"For the first time, such payments were interrupted in 2022 as a result of illegal coercive measures taken by the European Union and Switzerland against Russia. By joining the 'sanctions war' against Russia, Bern continued the line of deviation from neutrality," it added. "Such a policy ultimately harms a number of institutions of international humanitarian cooperation, first of all the activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross," the Russian diplomats stressed.
"In both cases, in 2022 and now, Russian funds should have been used to meet the needs of the Syrian population. The Russian side notes the multifaceted efforts of the ICRC to provide urgent assistance to those in need, restore civilian infrastructure and ensure access to drinking water for the population of the Syrian Arab Republic. Work in these areas has been severely hampered for many years by sanctions pressure on Damascus from Washington and its allies. Further sanctions, now against Russia's Gazprombank, will only aggravate this situation," the Russian Foreign Ministry concluded.