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Russia to respond robustly, appropriately to US sanctions over Navalny — diplomat

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed out that Moscow views the new round of US sanctions over Nord Stream 2 and the Navalny case as Washington’s lack of political will to build bilateral relations based on a partnership
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Russian Foreign Ministry/TASS
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
© Russian Foreign Ministry/TASS

MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. US provocations related to the events surrounding Alexey Navalny prove that Washington is unwilling to face reality, as it is useless to put pressure on Russia, and the response to sanctions will be rough and appropriate, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Saturday.

"Once again the provocation, which was set up by Western intelligence agencies in the alleged poisoning of A. Navalny along with the threats to companies engaged in the nearly completed project Nord Stream 2, is in use. This looks pathetic and doomed, demonstrating Washington’s inability to abandon its arrogant rudeness and unwillingness to face reality, knowing in advance that it is useless to put pressure on Russia and that our response, as always, will be robust and appropriate," the statement says.

The diplomat pointed out that Moscow views the new round of US sanctions over Nord Stream 2 and the Navalny case as Washington’s lack of political will to build bilateral relations based on a partnership.

"We consider such hostile actions of the Joe Biden administration as those dictated by the lack of political will and unwillingness to build Russian-US relations on a partnership basis," the statement says.

According to the diplomat, those sanctions go against the spirit of agreements reached by Russian and US Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden at the summit in Geneva on June 16.

"Contrary to the spirit of the Geneva summit and the agreements between the presidents, Washington, under spurious pretexts, imposes new sanctions on Russia in the current troublesome time, which requires our counties to expand cooperation and coordination in the international arena. It is being done in the wake of the US largest foreign policy failure in Afghanistan, fraught with unpredictable repercussions," she stressed.

"I would like to hope that rational considerations and the comprehension of the fact that it is counterproductive to endlessly stir up a toxic atmosphere in bilateral relations, which deprives them of any positive prospect, will eventually prevail at the White House," Zakharova concluded.

On Friday, the United States imposed sanctions on Russian entities and individuals, who, according to Washington, are allegedly involved in the incident with blogger Alexey Navalny and the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

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 fell into a coma and was put on a ventilator in an intensive care unit. On August 22, he was airlifted to Berlin and admitted to the Charite hospital. On September 2, the German government claimed that the blogger had been affected by a toxic agent belonging to the Novichok family. According to Berlin, the conclusions were substantiated by French and Swedish laboratories.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has reiterated that Moscow stays ready for comprehensive cooperation with Germany and pointed out that no poisonous substances had been detected in Navalny’s system prior to his transfer to Berlin.