OREANDA-NEWS. Supporters of strengthening sanctions against Russia in the West are re-using the names of Sergei Magnitsky, as well as Sergei and Julia Skripal, to put pressure on Moscow. This opinion was expressed on Tuesday in his Telegram channel by Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, commenting on calls for the US and UK authorities to impose new sanctions against the Russian Federation.

“Again in the West, with enviable persistence, they are trying to use the names of Skripale and Magnitsky to put pressure on Moscow. In the heat of anti-Russian hysteria, still embracing a significant part of the US and UK establishment, the same words sound, I may say “arguments”. Distinctive “sanctions for the sake of sanctions” became a sign of Western policy of containment, the parliamentarian stated.

“All this is destructive, if not rude. The plot deserves a brush and a pen of a cartoonist for a long time”, he added. “But we continue to hope for common sense and to resume dialogue with our colleagues”.

Earlier, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives, Democrat Eliot Engel, and senior Republican on the committee, Michael McCall, called on US President Donald Trump to introduce a second package of sanctions against Russia in connection with the case of the former Colonel of the State Intelligence Directorate Sergey Skrypal convicted in Russia for espionage the benefit of the UK, and his daughter Julia, who were subject to Salisbury, according to the British side, to the effects of the Nerve Paralytic substance.

London then made a statement that this substance was allegedly being developed in Russia, and on this basis he accused Moscow of involvement in the incident. The Russian side categorically rejected all speculations on this score.