EU Foreign Ministers to Back New ‘Senseless’ Sanctions against Russia, Senator Says

MOSCOW – The European Union’s foreign ministers on Monday will endorse new sanctions against Russia over its alleged use of chemical weapons, Head of Russia’s Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev said.

The United Kingdom’s Foreign Office said on Sunday the EU foreign ministers would officially approve at the EU Council meeting in Luxemburg new sanctions against individuals and legal entities, allegedly responsible for using and spreading chemical weapons.

 “There a 100% probability that the EU foreign ministers will officially confirm new sanctions against Russia at talks in Luxembourg tomorrow,” Kosachev wrote, noting that the EU and US sanctions have three major goals.

First, the West’s measures prove that they were right since the introduction of sanctions means that Russia’s alleged use of chemical weapons has been confirmed. Second, all accusations against Western countries are dropped since they are the ones who slap sanctions and therefore they are beyond suspicions themselves, the senator said.

Third, the West tries to secure the right to investigate, prosecute and punish any country according to its decision, without enabling the other party to familiarize itself with the case files and without any evidence, and uses its economic advantages and influence on the markets and international bodies to achieve its goals, Kosachev said.

“But should this happen in any other court, the West would be the first to shout around the world about judicial arbitrariness, but it is behaving in an absolutely authoritarian way, I would say like a dictator,” the senator stressed.

“So, we are waiting for another round of sanctions, which are senseless for their designated purpose, but which are rather useful for the EU,” Kosachev said.

EU sanctions

Earlier, a high-ranking representative of the EU Council told reporters in Brussels that it was unknown when and against whom the first sanctions would be introduced as part of new measures agreed by envoys of 28 EU member-states on September 26.

After the EU summit in late June, a decision was made to introduce new restrictions to fight against the use of chemical weapons.

The step was announced a day after an emergency session of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. The session was convened at the initiative of the UK and the US in connection with the Salisbury poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia and also the accusations that the Syrian government forces used chemical weapons.

The OPCW members enabled the organization to punish alleged violators by a majority vote. Russia’s envoy to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin dismissed the decision as usurping the exclusive powers of the UN Security Council.

TASS

R.S