Russia slams new EU bans over Crimea gas turbines as ‘unfriendly’

Russia has denounced as “unfriendly and unjustified” a European Union decision to expand its anti-Moscow sanctions list over Moscow’s delivery of Siemens gas turbines to Crimea.

In a Friday statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed “deep regret” over the move by Brussels, calling the justifications for the latest round of sanctions “absolutely unsubstantiated,” RT reported

It also vowed that Moscow “reserves the right for retaliatory measures.”

Ties between Russia and the EU deteriorated after Crimea in 2014 separated from Ukraine and rejoined the Russian Federation following a popular referendum. Kiev and its Western allies, however, call the development as Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.

The EU and the US have imposed a host of sanctions against Russia over its alleged role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has been the scene of deadly fighting between Kiev’s army and pro-Russia forces. Moscow denies the claim.

“We are disappointed with the politicization of the issue [around the delivery of the gas turbines to Crimea] that has been reduced to absurd,” the statement further said, emphasizing that the “responsibility for all possible economic costs incurred by Siemens and other German companies working in Russia falls fully on the EU as well as on the German government.”

Earlier in the day, the European Commission added three Russian officials, including Deputy Energy Minister Andrey Cherezov as well as three companies to its sanctions blacklist over their alleged role in delivering Siemens gas turbines to Crimea.

The Commission insisted that the move contributed to the establishment of an independent power supply for Crimea and Sevastopol which “supports their separation from Ukraine, and undermines the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”

Read more:

• EU slaps new sanctions on Russia

The Russian foreign ministry statement, however, pointed to what it referred to as a “loose interpretation” of the sanctions policy by Germany -- which called for the new anti-Moscow sanctions – adding that it is “in direct contradiction to both international law and the principle of international relations.”

According to the report, the German-based Siemens Corporation complained last month that four of its gas turbines, designed for the project in Taman, were illegally delivered to Crimea by a Russian contractor. Taman is a peninsula in the Krasnodar region of Russia not far from Crimea.

Meanwhile, the Russian statement further indicated that Moscow is still “interested in keeping and developing economic cooperation with both Germany and the EU” as is still “committed to all obligations it took on.” 

It went on to add that Russia aims at “overcoming all [the] negative effects of sanctions.” 

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