Russian lawmaker comments on new US sanctions against Russia

The bill to expand sanctions against Russia, approved by the US House of Representative, seriously undermines the possibility of restoring Russian-US ties, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky said.

"At the same time, the possibility of diplomatic maneuvers to untie this Gordian knot in the Russian-US dialogue is being reduced almost to zero," he stressed.

The lawmaker stressed that "the sanctions, if signed by the US President Donald Trump, will become the most extensive and complex since 2014. "They will affect not only Russian companies, but also other states who will cooperate with Russia, including in the vast energy sector," TASS cited Slutsky as saying.

He pointed out that "the bill on sanctions is intended to deter not only Russia, but also US partners in Europe."

"It directly states the goal of promoting US liquefied natural gas on global markets. To that purpose, Russian gas needs to be removed from the market. In Europe, this approach was already described as running counter to all norms of the international law and violating stability and energy security of the continent," the International Affairs Committee’s chairman stressed.

He expressed hope that the "European Commission will give its adequate response soon and will not support the restrictive measures that are being dictated from across the ocean".