Any unilateral US sanctions illegitimate, could complicate bilateral ties, says Russia
The Kremlin has warned the US against imposing any new sanctions on Russia, saying such a move will “further complicate” bilateral ties.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Dozhd TV channel on Wednesday that Moscow could not predict what new sanctions the US planned to slap on Russia, but was sure that any restrictions would harm bilateral relations, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
"It’s difficult to say about the nature of these sanctions," Peskov said. "Will they further complicate the situation with Russian-US relations? The answer is unequivocal: certainly, they will."
Relations between the two countries have hit new lows, with American officials planning to impose fresh sanctions against Moscow over the poisoning of former Russian intelligence agent Sergei Skripal in Britain.
Peskov said the Kremlin did not recognize any US’s “unilateral restrictions,” saying it considered them “illegitimate.”
Washington has already imposed sanctions on Moscow over what it calls the attempted assassination of Skripal.
Back on March 4, Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, fell ill in the British city of Salisbury. They were hospitalized and diagnosed with exposure to Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent.
Britain blamed Russia but never offered solid evidence.
The Kremlin has on numerous occasions rejected any involvement, saying the substance could have originated from the countries studying Novichok, including the UK itself.
However, London and Washington, along with their European allies, keep accusing Moscow of having orchestrated the alleged poisoning attack.
Also in his interview, Peskov hit out at the "unpredictability" of the US under Donald Trump’s administration, saying it was causing "deep global concern."
"The fact that America has become unpredictable lately is no secret to anyone," he said. "Such unpredictability from the largest country, the most powerful economy in the world, is the subject of deep global concern," he added.
The comments come ahead of a slated face-to-face between Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit in Argentina later this month.
The two leaders met at the Élysée Palace in the French capital on Sunday.
Moscow and Washington are also at loggerheads over a range of other issues, especially the latter’s recent plan to walk away from a key Cold War-era arms control treaty.
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