MOSCOW, January 13. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the latest US bill on sanctions against Russia amounted to a nervous breakdown.
"It’s a kind of a nervous breakdown," he said on Channel One television. "In the infinite efforts to affirm their own greatness, some people have reached a certain psychological point that’s very hard to explain."
"I read with astonishment all these initiatives," he went on to say. "They seem like grown up people and serious politicians that aren’t doing their first year in Congress but these steps absolutely don’t grace them."
While the bill threatens sanctions if Russia doesn’t move its troops away from Ukraine, the US delegation in Geneva, according to Lavrov, said the US won’t move its troops and weapons from Russian borders.
"This is utterly arrogant," he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, a group of Democrat legislators led by Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey introduced a bill to the US Senate on restrictions against Russia if tensions around Ukraine escalate. It involves, among other things, sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, heads of the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defense, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, and other members of the military leadership. In addition, restrictive measures may affect the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said the proposal of new sanctions was futile, provocative and wouldn’t intimidate Russia.