Kremlin denounces new US sanctions as illegal

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov came out swinging Thursday morning against a new round of U.S. sanctions against Russia.

“We believe linking new [U.S.] restrictive measures, which we continue to consider illegitimate, to the Salisbury case is totally unacceptable,” Peskov said, according to the Russian news agency TASS, referring to the suspected poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the United Kingdom.

{mosads}”We once again flatly reject any accusations regarding the possible involvement of the Russian state in what happened in Salisbury. That’s out of the question,” he added.

He went on to say the sanctions “contravene international law.”

The U.S. sanctions announced on Wednesday, which will go into effect around Aug. 22, will restrict the licenses granted for exports of national security goods and technologies to Russia.

More punishing sanctions could be imposed in 90 days if Russia does not prove it is no longer using chemical weapons.

The Kremlin’s comments follow those from the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., which called the punishment “draconian” and said any attempt to tie Russia to the U.K. poisoning was “far-fetched.”

The sanctions were praised by the United Kingdom, with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeting, “If we are going to stop chemical and biological weapons — including nerve agents — becoming a new and horrific 21st cent norm states like Russia that use or condone their use need to know there is a price to pay. Thank you USA for standing firm with us on this.”