Russia has issued a statement condemning a new round of US sanctions imposed on them Wednesday. This latest set of US sanctions was meant to be related to allegations of a nerve gas attack is Salisbury, which Russia denied and for which no proof of their involvement exists.
Russian officials say that the US sanctions are illegal, and that retaliatory measures are being discussed and debated. The Kremlin added in a statement that the US move is at odds with the atmosphere of the recent Helsinki summit.
Russia has a right to be confused. Back in March, when Britain claimed the attack took place, the US expelled a number of Russian diplomats, which was supposed to be the measure for the attack. The US hasn’t talked about it much in months, and there is no sign it came up in Helsinki, just weeks ago.
This would’ve led Russia to the conclusion that the issue was no longer driving US policy, and the fact that it suddenly became a pretext for more sanctions, without any more evidence provided, makes it particularly unclear why the US chose now as the time for the sanctions, let alone Salisbury as an excuse.
Sanctions on Russia right now are domestic political theater. They have nothing to do with actions of Russia. The excuse does not matter, it is all about the show.
The other big goal is to try to control who trades with who. Like China’s central party pre-selecting candidates who may run for office and calling it Democracy, the US seeks to pre-select who can be traded with and calls it free trade.
DING!DING!DING!DING! We have a winner! Congratulations, Mark Thompson, you’e the first to pinpoint the real reason(s) for the illegal sanctions on Russia .. domestic political theater.
The whole “highly likely” nonsense about Russia never had the slightest bit of evidence, let alone proof, and was nothing to do with the USA anyway. Russia, and any thinking person, knew that the incident had absolutely no interest for Russia- the “ex-spy”, the exchange in 2010 and his free life for 8 years in Salisbury, the close election of Putin, the World Cup, and of course the failure of the “novichok” and the mysterious recovery then disappearance of the victims- did nothing but harm to Russia. To bring up an old law and more sanctions show the pitiful state of US policies and priorities.
Solve your own huuuge problems, leave the rest of us alone, Rogue State.