Russian Lawmaker Sees New US Sanctions Bill As Attempt To Divert Attention From Failures

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2021) Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Russian lower chamber's international affairs committee, expressed the belief that the new US bill on sanctions targeting Russian officials was an attempt to distract attention from the White House's foreign policy failures, and also warned that the legislation could affect bilateral dialogue.

The US House of Representatives' Rules Committee approved an amendment bill recommending sanctions against 35 Russian officials, including Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov and others.

"This initiative of the congressmen to put key representatives of the Russian leadership and Russia's major business persons on the Magnitsky act sanctions list is a bad PR move.

Obviously, the Capitol Hill is trying to divert attention from the US foreign policy failures, primarily in Afghanistan. However, they hardly manage to do it," Slutsky told Sputnik on Thursday.

The senior lawmaker noted that the pressure on Russia is growing after the parliamentary elections, during which "the collective West failed to materialize scenarios for influencing the political situation and promoting its puppets to power."

"If the US administration introduces such restrictions, this will catastrophically undermine the already barely visible Russian-US dialogue," Slutsky concluded.