Trump signs new anti-Russian sanctions, Moscow can retaliate

MOSCOW, Aug 2 (PRIME) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an order to impose the second package of sanctions against Russia under the 2018 case of poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yuliya, Politico reported on Friday quoting two U.S. officials.

The U.S. accused Russia of violating the 1991 Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act as it carried out the poisoning, while the Russian government has repeatedly denied involvement in the incident. The first package of sanctions came into force in August 2018.

Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian parliament’s upper house Federation Council, told PRIME that Russia may retaliate in the same way.

“We may introduce some mirror-like measures. But the topic of sanctions has already lost its edge for us. Russia has become a self-sufficient state, we have learned to live under sanctions, and these sanctions bear no significant threat to our economy,” Dzhabarov said.

It is a pity that the U.S. uses such a far-fetched excuse for sanctions. “We all know that the so-called Skripal case was a provocation of the British special services, but U.S. senators ‘took the bait’ because they needed any reason to fight with competitive Russia,” he said.

Trump had been stalling the second package for several months, but he “was moved to impose the fresh round of sanctions by a bipartisan letter sent to the White House earlier this week from the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representatives Eliot Engel and Michael McCaul,” Politico reported.

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