Russia Must Be Sanctioned For Using Chemical Weapons, UK Insists

States like Russia that use or condone the use of chemical weapons need to know there is a price to pay, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Thursday.

Washington said on Wednesday it would impose new sanctions on Russia by August ending after it determined that Moscow had used a nerve agent against a former Russian agent and his daughter in Britain.

“If we are going to stop chemical and biological weapons, including nerve agents becoming a new and horrific 21st cent (century) norm, states like Russia that use or condone their use need to know there is a price to pay.

“Thank you U.S. for standing firm with us on this,” Hunt said on Twitter.

Earlier, the Kremlin said the new batch of sanctions on Moscow announced by the U. S. was illegal under international law and that Russia’s financial system was stable.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, speaking to reporters on a conference call, said the U.S. move was “absolutely unfriendly,” but said Moscow continued to hope that for an improvement in battered U.S.-Russia relations.

“Making a linking to these events (the British poisoning) is for us unacceptable and such restrictions like those passed by the American side earlier … are absolutely illegal and do not correspond to international law,” said Peskov.

News of the U.S. measures sent the rouble tumbling to two-year lows at one point and sparked a wider asset sell-off over fears that Moscow was locked in a spiral of never-ending sanctions.

(Reuters/NAN)