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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized the European Union's decision to expand anti-Russian sanctions, noting that it will have the same effect as all its predecessors.
Russia Today website quoted Zakharova as saying today: “The leaders of the European Union are unable to break out of the vicious circle of restrictions and recognize the futility of all sanctions against Russia and the policy of pressure on Russia.”
Zakharova added, "The current package will have the same effect as all its predecessors, including the exacerbation of social and economic problems in the European Union itself."
Zakharova explained that because of the ill-conceived steps on the part of Brussels, the citizens of the European Union faced energy shortages and inflation, while a real threat of deindustrialization looms in the European Union economy.
Regarding the ban imposed on broadcasting four other Russian media outlets in the territories of the member states of the European Union, Zakharova said: “Such authoritarian measures, unfortunately, have become a common practice in Brussels.”
In a related context, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the European Union's continued imposition of illegal sanctions against Moscow increases the number of countries supporting the Russian position.
A statement published by the Russian Mission to the United Nations, following the European Union's approval of the ninth package of sanctions against Russia yesterday, said: The pace of Western sanctions is not slowing down, but rather has become the preferred tool of the European Union's illegal foreign policy for a long time, with the aim of pressuring sovereign states. It contradicts the system of international financial and trade relations, and the basic principles of the World Trade Organization.
The statement added: The European Union's sanctions against Moscow are a flagrant violation of basic international standards, but it continues to impose them in an attempt to isolate Russia internationally, as it does not accept unfair European rules and coercively imposed Western guidelines.
The statement stressed that the sanctions adopted in the ninth package will not only affect the Russians, but will directly affect European citizens, as the European Union, by banning a number of Russian media outlets, deprives its citizens of the opportunity to see a point of view that differs from its own, and violates the right of its citizens to access information. Freedom of opinion and expression, and the rights of journalists guaranteed in international laws.
Earlier today, the head of the International Affairs Committee in the Russian State Duma, Leonid Slutsky, described the European Union's sanctions against Russian parliamentary parties as "sanctions against the choice of the Russian people."
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