Russia on Tuesday criticised Washington’s blacklisting of a high-ranking official and the suspects in the murder of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko as a move by the outgoing administration to further sour bilateral ties.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the U.S. decision to blacklist Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin and Litvinenko’s alleged assassins, lawmaker Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, represented “further steps in the artificially created degradation of our relations”.
The U.S. Treasury on Monday added Mr. Bastrykin, Mr. Lugovoi and Mr. Kovtun to the Magnitsky Act sanctions list in the latest spike of diplomatic tensions between Moscow and Washington.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said the additions followed “extensive research” and targeted individuals with “roles in the repressive machinery of Russia’s law enforcement systems, as well as individuals involved in notorious human rights violations”.
Washington has accused the Kremlin of orchestrating cyberattacks aimed at influencing the results of November’s White House race. U.S. intelligence agencies last week released a report saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered a hacking campaign and media manipulation to upend the campaign of Hillary Clinton. Mr. Lugovoi dismissed his being included on the sanctions list as “absurd”, telling Russian media he was “perplexed” by the decision.
Litvinenko, an ex-spy turned Kremlin critic, died of radiation poisoning in 2006 aged 43, three weeks after drinking tea laced with polonium at an upmarket London hotel. — AFP
