The United States is inferior to the countries of the European Union (EU) in their primacy in the Russophobic company. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced this on February 19 at talks with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla.
“Now, judging by how the situation is developing, the United States is losing primacy to the European Union in this Russophobic campaign. Let history put everything in its place, and let the residents of the countries that are members of the European Union draw their conclusions from who they brought to power,” Lavrov said.
At the same time, he added that Russia is not surprised by the development of new anti-Russian sanctions in the EU. According to Lavrov, European countries do not care about their citizens, but about how to keep up with the United States in their Russophobia. “As for what the European Union is planning and doing, I don’t think anything about it,” Lavrov said.
Earlier, on February 19, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said that his country would not block the 13th package of sanctions against Russia, because during the discussions it was possible to remove all the provisions that did not suit Hungary. At the same time, Szijjártó himself called the 13th package of sanctions a wrong decision by the EU.
The head of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, clarified on February 17 that the new package of sanctions is aimed at preventing Russia from using third countries to circumvent already established restrictions. Two days earlier, the Financial Times reported that the package included three Chinese companies that allegedly contributed to the development of the Russian defense sector, and because of them, Hungary blocked a new set of sanctions during discussions of the package by EU ambassadors.
On February 14, the EU proposed to include 193 individuals and legal entities in the new package of anti-Russian sanctions. Thus, the earlier list was expanded by 43 people and 32 companies. A day earlier, Bloomberg noted that some Russian politicians and officials would be included in the new sanctions list.
On the same day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova promised that Russia will definitely respond if Russian diplomats are restricted in their movements within the Schengen zone, although this is very difficult to do because they are not tracked. According to her, the Russian Foreign Ministry is closely monitoring the preparation and adoption of the 13-pack of anti-Russian sanctions.
US President Joe Biden, in turn, said on February 19 that the United States is thinking about the possibility of introducing new sanctions against Russia, but in general these restrictions have already been introduced. He made this statement in response to a question from journalists about the US reaction to the death of blogger Alexei Navalny (included by Rosfinmonitoring in the register of organizations and individuals involved in extremist activities or terrorism) in a colony in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug on February 16. At the moment, the United States does not report the development of a new package of restrictions against Russia.
Western countries have increased sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation amid a special operation to protect the population of Donbass. The decision to start it was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin after the situation in the region worsened due to Ukrainian shelling.
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