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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US State Department announced on Tuesday that it would impose additional sanctions on Russia after Moscow failed to give reasonable assurance not to use drugs. 39, chemical weapons after the attack by a nerve agent of a former Russian spy in England.
The Russian flag flies over the Russian Embassy in Washington, USA, on August 6, 2018. REUTERS / Brian Snyder / File Photo
In August, the department had threatened Russia with additional sanctions after 90 days if it did not comply with the 1991 Law on the Elimination of Chemical and Biological Weapons and War.
Under the law, Russia had to put an end to the use of the Novichok nerve agent, used during the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March, S & # 39; commit not to use chemical weapons against his own people and allow on-site inspections by agencies such as the United Nations.
"Today, the department informed Congress that we could not certify that the Russian Federation was fulfilling the conditions," US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. .
"We intend to proceed in accordance with the terms of CBW law, which governs the application of additional sanctions," she added.
Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer GRU, and his daughter, Yulia, aged 33, were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury, in southern England, after the death of a man. application of Novichok in liquid form entry door. Both survived the attack.
European countries and the United States have expelled 100 Russian diplomats after the attack, as part of the most forceful action by President Donald Trump against Russia since taking office.
Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack.
In August, a first series of sanctions related to the poisoning of Skripal targeted goods controlled by Russian national security. The second set of sanctions would be "more draconian," said the state department at the time.
The State Department did not specify when the next train of sanctions against Russia would be issued.
The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Republican Chamber, Ed Royce, said that he was not surprised that Russia did not comply with the Chemical Weapons Act and asked for Administration to move on to the next round of sanctions.
"No one should be surprised that Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses to give up the future use of military-grade nerve agents," said Royce. "It is unacceptable that the administration has no plan – or even timetable – to follow up on the second set of mandatory sanctions imposed by US law," he added.
A Kremlin spokesman said on Tuesday that Putin and Trump would meet briefly in Paris next week, and US officials said such a meeting was likely.
Report by Lesley Wroughton and Patricia Zengerle; edited by Richard Chang and G Crosse
