Russian lawmaker denounces new U.S. sanctions as 'lynch law'

A senior Russian lawmaker has denounced new U.S. sanctions against Russia over the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain as "lynch law."

Chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament Konstantin Kosachev said that the U.S. has behaved like a "police state, threatening and torturing a suspect to get evidence."

The State Department said the U.S. made the determination this week that Russia had used the Novichok nerve agent to poison former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, and that sanctions would follow later this month. Russia has vehemently denied any involvement in the poisoning.

Kosachev argued that the new sanctions amount to "inflicting a punishment in the absence of a crime in the tradition of lynch law," ABC News reported.