Russian Foreign Minister complains to US Secretary of State Pompeo about new sanctions
On Friday, August 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a telephone conversation with the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in which he expressed his opposition to the new U.S. sanctions against Russia, reported the Russian Foreign Ministry.
"The Russian side has categorically rejected Washington's announced new sanctions which were announced recently and which are connected to allegedly available information about Russia's involvement in the so-called ‘Skripals case’," the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry reads.
Accosting to Lavrov, neither the United States nor Britain provided "even single fact" in reinforcing such allegations.
In addition, several international issues were discussed during the conversation. These included the situation in Syria and some other topics considered during the meeting of the Russian and U.S. presidents in Helsinki on July 16.
On August 8, the U.S. announced plans to impose sanctions against Russia over the poisoning of a former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the British Salisbury. The State Department promised to introduce these restrictive measures in two stages. First, they will ban Russia from importing several American products related to the national security such as dual-purpose electronics.
If Moscow does not provide guarantees for not continuing to use chemical weapons and does not agree to allow international experts to the chemical weapons investigations, Washington threatens to reduce the level of diplomatic relations, reduce foreign trade between the countries and prevent Russia from obtaining international bank loans.
In return, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the U.S. is on the way to further aggravation of bilateral relations and promised reciprocal measures.