“Market goals”: ​​the Russian Foreign Ministry reacted to the expansion of the US sanctions list

Moscow calls on American politicians to "stop the stupid sanctions games, the result of which is zero, and return to common sense." This is stated in a comment by the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with the expansion of the sanctions list. As diplomats emphasized, this anti-Russian attack will be answered.

“We express extreme bewilderment with the new portion of anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the US administration on September 30,” the report said.

“Arbitrary Russians, a citizen of Taiwan, commercial organizations registered in the Seychelles, the Czech Republic and a number of other countries, several aircraft and ships were brought under them. What made the Washington bureaucrats unite them all on one list, what relation the planes and motor ships have, as claimed, to interference in the American election, remains unclear, ”the Foreign Ministry explained.

Russian diplomats noticed that for some individuals, the new restrictions were already “second and third” in a row, introduced by Washington.

“Either the authors of the sanctions registries lacked imagination, or they got confused in their many lists,” the Foreign Ministry stated.

At the same time, the foreign ministry called this step “a reflection of the internal political crisis that gripped the United States”, in which part of the American political establishment uses Russian themes “to achieve its own opportunistic goals.”

“But those officials who are talking about frank Russophobes should think that their actions contradict the public statements of the American leadership about the desire to normalize bilateral relations and increase tension in the international arena,” the Russian Foreign Ministry concluded.

Meanwhile, Oleg Morozov, a member of the Federation Council committee on international affairs, said in an interview with RT that Russia would not notice another expansion of US sanctions.

“It is not clear that the American secret services came up with how they identified that these people were doing something related to the interference ... When they tell the world about some regular hackers and about some companies that invaded the elections, it smacks of political schizophrenia, ”he said.

The senator emphasized that the Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that "the country has nothing to do with the American election."

Earlier, a message appeared on the site of the US Treasury that two citizens of Russia and three companies were included in the sanctions list of the Foreign Assets Control Office (OFAC) for participating in the alleged Russian interference in the US election.

“The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Foreign Asset Control Authority imposed sanctions on Russian individuals who tried to influence the 2018 midterm elections in the United States. Meanwhile, there were no signs that foreign entities could jeopardize the electoral infrastructure, make changes or disrupt the counting process, ”the report said.

As indicated in the US department, the decision was made to increase pressure on Yevgeny Prigozhin, already under sanctions.

Thus, Denis Igorevich Kuzmin (born in 1990) and Igor Vladimirovich Nesterov (born in 1985), who are allegedly associated with the Internet Research Agency, fell under Washington's restrictive measures. In addition, restrictions on Seychelles registered companies Autolex Transport Ltd and Beratex Group Limited, as well as Linburg Industries Ltd (Czech Republic). In addition, the sanctions affected civilian equipment, which belongs to these companies. It is about one yacht and three aircraft.

Recall that the midterm elections in the United States on November 6, 2018. According to their results, representatives were elected to both houses of the US Congress (Senate and House of Representatives). Also on this day, the Americans elected governors.

A few days after this, the leaders of the FBI, the Justice Department, the National Intelligence Agency and the US Department of Homeland Security announced that there were no "successful attempts to break into the voting infrastructure." This was later confirmed by John Bolton, who at that time held the post of adviser to the US president on national security.