Russia This Wednesday, it gave approval to 398 congressmen of the House of Representatives. United States of America and 87 senators In response to the sanctions imposed by Canada, Washington and Ottawa on deputies of the Russian Duma (Lower House) and Federation Council (Senate) for the military campaign in Ukraine.
“In the near future, there will be more announcements about expanding the sanctions list and other retaliatory measures”, for both the United States and Canada, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned in separate statements.
The measure taken by Sergei Lavrov’s portfolio It follows the US sanctions imposed on 328 deputies of the Duma on March 24.Taking into account the Russian parliamentarians who were previously included in the American blacklist, it “makes up almost the entire Assembly”, consisting of 450 seats.
Now, with the new round of sanctions, “all” congressmen are now on the Russian list, according to Moscow, as Russia previously vetoed the entry of several US legislators, such as Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. the basis of “reciprocity”.
Among other sanctions, the U.S. Department of the Treasury three weeks ago included the Russian Duma in the list of vetoed entitiesand this froze all the assets of 328 members of the Russian Lower House under US jurisdiction.
“The Russian State Duma continues to support (President Vladimir) Putin’s invasion, restricting the flow of information and violating the fundamental rights of Russian citizens,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.
The Treasury also, in February, The Duma endorsed Putin’s call to recognize the self-proclaimed pro-Russian republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent, “Even though they are part of Ukraine.”
In the Canadian example, Ottawa sanctioned 160 senators of the Russian Federation Council (Upper House) on the same day as the United States, and therefore responded by banning 87 Canadian congressmen from entering the country.
Russia considers this measure “hostile”, Foreign Affairs Spokesperson María Zajárova said Canada was “trying to be at the forefront of the current US administration’s anti-Russian course”.
“The continuation of this myopic streak, reflecting the failure and dependence of Canadian foreign policy, can only increase the damage to Canada itself and its relations with Russia, given Russia’s inevitable reaction,” he added.