Photo taken on March 08, 2018 Emergency service members in green biohazard suits donned the tent above the bench, where a man and a woman were found on March 4 in critical condition at The Maltings Mall in Salisbury, in the south of England. . The couple, former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were hospitalized in critical condition for what the British authorities have described as poisoning by Russian agents.(Photo: Ben Stansall, AFP / Getty Images)

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia would consider "illegal" new US sanctions imposed for the poisoning of a Russian spy in Britain.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov's remarks follow Tuesday's State Department statement that the United States will impose a second round of sanctions on Russia's alleged use of a nerve agent Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in March.

Skripal had settled in Britain as a result of an exchange of spies with Russia.

Under US law, Russia was required to terminate the use of the Novichok nerve agent used in the attack. He also demanded that Russia pledge not to use chemical weapons against its own people and to allow on-site inspections by agencies such as the United Nations.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement that sanctions had been imposed because Russia had not complied with these requirements, without specifying when they would be applied. . Reuters reports.

In response, Peskov said Russia considers the sanctions as "illegal" and "will treat similar steps in the same way if they follow".

He also had a bleak view of the current state of US-Russian relations.

"One can assume with great confidence that, of course, no bright prospect of normalization of Russian-US relations is looming," the Kremlin spokesman said about bilateral relations after the mid-term elections on 6 May. November.

"It would be difficult to make them even more complicated," he said, according to the TASS news agency.

He stressed that, despite US claims, Russia has never interfered with the electoral processes of a country, including the United States, and has "no intention of doing so in the future" .

Despite the current tensions, he said: "This does not mean, however, that we are not seeking dialogue, we do not want dialogue, because we have many problems that require Russian-American intercommunication."

Among the problems to be solved, he added, are strategic stability and arms control.

"These problems will not be solved by themselves without dialogue," Peskov said.

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