Top Russian MP urges personal sanctions against Ukrainian officials

The head of the State Duma’s foreign relations committee has accused Ukrainian officials of “waiting on Obama’s administration” and called upon fellow MPs to punish the "conflict-mongers" with personal sanctions.

Aleksey Pushkov said in a speech in parliament on Tuesday that the Kiev regime was “deliberately developing the conflict logic” in relations with Russia, acting primarily in the interests of the United States.

“Attacks on the Russian embassy, an attempted attack on the consular office, insults aimed at the Russian President, regular and never ending arrests of Russian journalists and the refusal to pay the gas bills – I think these are all premeditated steps coordinated by the United States. These are links in the same chain,” the MP said.

Pushkov also warned that relations between Ukraine and Russia were entering a new stage, and this stage is bringing the two nations closer to a serious conflict.

“We should reassess our politics regarding Ukraine,” the parliamentarian said. “It looks like our position that sanctions are something inacceptable in foreign relations is not finding any understanding in the western world where sanctions have become a permanent instrument of diplomacy and foreign politics,” he noted.

Pushkov said the State Duma should develop a system of sanctions against Ukraine, including some personal sanctions against Ukrainian officials. “In the current situation when sanctions are being used by a large number of international players including the leading nations of the world, Russia is narrowing its foreign policy potential by rejecting this tool,” he stated.

“We should end all talks about partnership with Ukraine until Ukraine demonstrates its readiness for such a partnership,” said the Lower House foreign relations chief.

The suggestion was supported by most of the MPs. Deputies of the center-left Fair Russia caucus also said that Russia should recall its ambassador from Ukraine as a reply to the embassy attack. “It can only cause bewilderment that after the mob violence launched by Ukrainian Nazis near our embassy our ambassador had not been recalled and still remains in Kiev,” said the deputy head of the caucus Mikhail Yemelyanov.

A day earlier Russia’s envoy to the UN Vitaly Churkin said that Moscow was disappointed over the United Nations’ failure to condemn the assault on the Russian embassy in Kiev. “We are disappointed that Security Council colleagues failed to support a statement condemning the attack on the Russian embassy, notwithstanding the fact that Russia had always expressed its support of colleagues from other countries in similar situations.”