Comment by the Information and Press Department on the EU decision to add Russian citizens to the sanctions list

On January 21, the EU Foreign Affairs Council approved restrictions against a number of Russian citizens for their alleged involvement in the Salisbury poisoning in March 2018. By so doing, the EU tested a new mechanism against our compatriots of restrictive measures against the proliferation and use of chemical weapons.

The new accusations against Russia and Russian citizens under the so-called Skripal case do not stand up to scrutiny. The information campaign was launched by the British government over this case for predominantly domestic political purposes. It is indicative that the renewal of this campaign has coincided with the latest crisis in the Brexit talks.

We reaffirm our position of principle on the unacceptability of unilateral restrictive measures adopted without due regard for the opinion of the UN Security Council. We regard the adoption and application of the abovementioned mechanism as evidence of the EU’s disrespect for the Chemical Weapons Convention. It is notable that the first targets of these restrictive EU measures are the citizens of Russia and Syria, the two states which, unlike the United States, have eliminated all their chemical weapons under the OPCW supervision. By adopting these sanctions, Brussels has once again demonstrated its disregard for the collective mechanisms of international cooperation. Their replacement with illegitimate and unilateral “punitive” instruments, such as the assignment of attributive functions to the OPCW Technical Secretariat, can exacerbate arbitrariness in international relations and erode international law.

We reserve the right to take response measures to this unfriendly action.