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Names of Magnitsky, Skripals once again used to exert pressure on Russia — lawmaker

Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky said that "'sanctions for the sake of sanctions' became a trademark of the Western policy of deterrence"

Chairman of Russian State Duma's International Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky Mikhail Klimentyev/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

Chairman of Russian State Duma's International Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky

© Mikhail Klimentyev/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

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MOSCOW, July 30. /TASS/. Those who want more sanctions to be imposed on Russia once again use the names of Sergey Magnitsky, and Sergey and Yulia Skripal, to increase pressure on Moscow, chair of the Russian State Duma's International Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky said on Tuesday.

"Some people in the West are amazingly persistent in their attempts to use the names of the Skripals and Magnitsky to increase pressure on Moscow," Slutsky wrote on his official Telegram account. "Amidst anti-Russian hysteria that still engulfs a considerable part of elites in the US and UK, the same 'highly likely arguments' are made again and again. 'Sanctions for the sake of sanctions' became a trademark of the Western policy of deterrence," he added.

"All of this is destructive, to put it mildly. This scenario has long been asking for a caricature," Slutsky noted. "However, we still hope that common sense will prevail, and dialogue with our Western colleagues will be resumed," he concluded.

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