(Dan Tri) – Russia believes that the new sanctions package launched by the US against Moscow is a move of a trade war.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Photo: Tass).
`This (the US announcing a new anti-Russia sanctions package) is a trade war that is taking place strongly to redistribute the market, to allow the US to maintain its own growth rate. The lack of resources
Ms. Zakharova said that the new sanctions could be seen as an attempt by the US to `maintain a leadership role in the absence of an opportunity to do this legally`.
On May 1, the US Treasury Department announced a new sanctions package aimed at Russia.
In addition, 20 businesses based in Hong Kong and mainland China are also included in the latest US sanctions list.
The US State Department also announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russian entities, citing accusations that Moscow violated the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) to impose a number of sanctions.
The sanctioned individuals and entities included the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Self-Defense Forces, a specialized branch of the Russian military tasked with protecting troops and civilians from weapons of mass destruction.
Washington accused this unit of `facilitating the use` of chemical weapons in the Ukraine conflict.
The US State Department accused Russia of using the poison chloropicrin, which was used in chemical warfare during World War I and is now mainly used as a pesticide and herbicide.
A senior Ukrainian military commander last year claimed that his troops had been repeatedly targeted with chloropicrin.
Moscow has accused Ukrainian forces of staging chemical weapons incidents in order to blame Russia for these incidents.
The Russian Foreign Ministry in late February alleged that `Ukraine’s use of toxic chemicals has become systematic`.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov this week denied US accusations that Russia had used chemical weapons in the Ukraine conflict.
Mr. Peskov announced on May 2 that these claims are baseless and without any evidence.
