Russia has ‘negative’ reaction to latest EU sanctions

'We are not aware of any more substantive and specific proof, which is why we have a negative reaction to such decisions,' says Kremlin spokesman.

Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov says the suspects in the Skripal poisoning have been accused "without any basis" | Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images

The Kremlin denounced Monday latest EU sanctions against two Russians accused by Britain of poisoning former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

EU foreign ministers Monday imposed sanctions on nine people — four Russians and five Syrians — as well as the Scientific Studies and Research Centre, a Syrian entity responsible for developing and making chemical weapons. The sanctions are the first to be imposed by the European Union under a new regime of restrictive measures against the use and proliferation of chemical weapons set up in October.

Russian government spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a news conference that the two Russian men — identified as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov — are “suspected without any basis, there has been no proof so far.”

“We are all familiar with the infamous photographs of these two citizens in the U.K.,” Russian state media TASS reported him as saying, adding there “are many, many photos of Russian citizens in the U.K., and they do not serve as direct proof.”

“We are not aware of any more substantive and specific proof, which is why we have a negative reaction to such [EU] decisions,” Peskov said.

The EU sanctions include EU-wide travel bans and the freezing of assets. Also, EU persons and entities are barred from making funds available to those sanctioned.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in the English city of Salisbury last March. The U.K. says Russian intelligence officers poisoned them with Novichok, a nerve agent. The two men accused of the attack have said they were in Britain only as tourists.

Peskov said Britain had still not handed over evidence it had gathered against the two men, and said their guilt had not been proven. “In this case, the situation has not changed, in our opinion,” he said.

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