The Kremlin has denounced new U.S. sanctions against Russia over the poisoning of a former spy in Britain as ‘lynch law’ and an attempt to ‘demonise Russia’.
Moscow also said the government is working on retaliatory measures, with one potential target being NASA, as the U.S. Space program uses Russian rocket engines.
The U.S. State Department said yesterday that they had determined that Russia used the Novichok nerve agent to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and that sanctions would follow later this month.
Fire back: Senior Russian MP Konstantin Kosachev accused the U.S. of behaving like a ‘police state, torturing a suspect to get evidence’ by implementing the new sanctions
In response, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Thursday that ‘the restrictions are absolutely unlawful and don’t conform to international law.’
Russia has not specified how it might retaliate, and Peskov said it needs to see what specific action the U.S. takes before doing so.
He insisted that the Russian financial system is strong enough to withstand shocks from the new penalties.
Peskov also reaffirmed Moscow’s strong denial of involvement in the poisoning, saying that ‘there can’t be any talk about Russia having any relation to the use of chemical weapons.’
He added that Britain has failed to present any evidence to back the claim and stonewalled Russia’s proposal for a joint probe.


Former agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious near his home in Salisbury, UK, at the beginning of March. Authorities determined that they had been attacked with a military-grade Russian nerve agent known as Novichok
Senior lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, accused the U.S. of behaving like a ‘police state, threatening and torturing a suspect to get evidence.’
Kosachev argued that the new sanctions amount to ‘inflicting a punishment in the absence of a crime in the tradition of lynch law.’
Leonid Slutsky, the head of the lower house’s foreign affairs committee, denounced the sanctions as a manifestation of ‘unbridled Russophobia’ and mockery of international law, saying that Russia may respond with countersanctions.

British Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed the U.S. decision to impose sanctions
Slutsky suggested Russia could restrict exports of RD-180 rocket engines to the U.S. if Washington imposed new sanctions, the RIA news agency reported.
The engines are currently used by NASA for the first stage of the Atlas V rocker’s launch vehicle.
The new U.S. sanctions, which are set to take effect on or around August 22, will include the presumed denial of export licenses for Russia to purchase many items with national security implications, according to a senior State Department official
The U.S. made a similar determination in February when it found that North Korea used a chemical weapon to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half-brother at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2017.
Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by the Novichok military-grade nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury in March. Both eventually recovered. Britain has accused Russia of being behind the attack, which the Kremlin vehemently denies.
Months later, two residents of a nearby town with no ties to Russia were also poisoned by the deadly toxin. Police believe the couple accidentally found a bottle containing Novichok. One of them died.
The U.S. had joined Britain in condemning Russia for the Skripal poisoning and joined with European nations in expelling Russian diplomats in response, but it had yet to make the formal determination that the Russian government had ‘used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law or has used lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals.’
British Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed the U.S. decision. Her Downing Street office issued a statement saying the move sends ‘an unequivocal message to Russia that its provocative, reckless behaviour will not go unchallenged.’