"We Call on Colleagues Not to Play with Fire." Russian Foreign Ministry Comments on EU and US Sanctions Over Navalny

The Russian Foreign Ministry called the new sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States over the persecution of politician Alexei Navalny a "hostile anti-Russian attack." The statement was published on the Foreign Ministry's website.

Absurdity prevails when the pretext for imposing sanctions is declared to be a deliberately staged provocation with the alleged "poisoning" of A. Navalny with some "combat chemicals". All this is just a pretext for continuing the blatant interference in our internal affairs. We do not intend to put up with this. We will react based on the principle of reciprocity, not necessarily symmetrically.

The Foreign Ministry stated that such actions by the US further “emasculate bilateral relations, which Washington has already brought to the point of complete freezing.”

Calculations to impose anything on Russia by means of sanctions or other pressure have failed in the past, and will fail now. If the US is not ready for an equal dialogue on a reasonable basis, that is their choice. Regardless of the US "sanction preferences", we will continue to consistently and decisively defend our national interests, rebuffing any aggression. We call on our colleagues not to play with fire.

• The European Union and the United States imposed sanctions due to the persecution of Navalny on March 2.
• The EU's restrictive measures include Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Russian National Guard Viktor Zolotov, and director of the Federal Penitentiary Service Alexander Kalashnikov.
• The US imposed sanctions against Krasnov and Kalashnikov, as well as against Russian officials who were included in the EU sanctions list back in the fall: First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration Sergei Kiriyenko, Director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov, Deputy Defense Ministers Alexei Krivoruchko and Pavel Popov, and Head of the Kremlin’s Domestic Policy Directorate Andrei Yarin.
• In addition, several Russian research institutes are included in the US sanctions list.