Russian official sees no change in US policy of ‘blackmail, sanctions’ under Biden

A Russian official says the United States’ practice of blackmailing other countries and imposing sanctions on them is continuing under the administration of President Joe Biden and will never end.

“Never ending story. The US blackmails and sanctions even its allies. At the time of previous US administration, West European companies were intimidated to such an extent that they ran away from Iran,” Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, said in a tweet on Tuesday, referring to the failure of the European parties to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal — France, Britain, and Germany — to fulfill their contractual commitments to Tehran after the then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the pact in May 2018.

“No changes since then so far. This policy will continue with some exceptions,” he added.

The United States has imposed sanctions on Turkey — a fellow member of NATO — over its acquisition of advanced Russian missile systems.

A notice of the sanctions, imposed last December, was due to be published on the US Federal Register, the daily journal of the US government, on Tuesday.

Turkey has condemned the sanctions as a “grave mistake” that would inevitably harm mutual relations between Ankara and Washington and has threatened retaliation.

The sanctions target Turkey’s top defense procurement and development body, the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB), its chairman Ismail Demir and three other Turkish defense officials, namely Mustafa Alper Deniz, Serhat Gencoglu, and Faruk Yigit.

Turkey and Russia finalized the agreement on the delivery of the S-400 missile systems in late 2017.

The S-400 is considered Russia’s most advanced long-range, anti-aircraft missile system.

The US alleges that the S-400 is not compatible with the military hardware owned by the other members of NATO. Washington also says that the defense system poses a threat to the American Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter jets, which were to be jointly produced in Turkey. That production was canceled by the White House over Ankara’s purchase of the Russian-made air defense systems.

Ankara has gone ahead with the procurement nevertheless.

Turkey has sought to boost its air defense particularly since Washington decided in 2015 to withdraw its Patriot surface-to-air missile system from the Turkish border with Syria, a move that weakened Turkey’s air defense.

Before turning to Russia, the Turkish military reportedly walked out of a 3.4-billion-dollar contract for a similar Chinese system. The withdrawal took place under purported pressure from Washington.

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