Russia calls 10th package of sanctions 'slow-acting poison killing EU economic sovereignty'

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday called the EU's 10th package of sanctions against Russia, adopted on Feb. 25, "a slow-acting poison" killing the bloc's economic sovereignty.

In a statement, Zakharova said by targeting Russia the EU is imposing sanctions on itself and may do it as long as it wants, because it will only lead to its dependence on "direct competitors."

"It is difficult to disagree with the head of the European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, who said in the European Parliament on Feb. 15 this year that sanctions are 'a slow-acting poison.' But it 'kills', first of all, the economic sovereignty of the European Union," Zakharova stressed.

She denounced "attempts to label as forced displacement" Russia's "care about children whose parents were killed from weapons supplied by Western countries" to Kyiv.

Since its "special military operation," Moscow has transferred orphans from Russian-speaking territories of war-torn Ukraine to families and foster homes in Russia.

"For more than eight years the EU had been neglecting the killings of children as a result of the shelling of the AFU (armed forces of Ukraine) in Donbas.

"None of the EU officials even has an idea what the Alley of Angels in Donetsk is. These human tragedies are cynically hushed up in the EU, because they do not fit into the one-sided Western interpretation of events," she said.

By expanding its sanctions on Russian officials, the EU is violating freedom of movement, the ministry official said, adding that ban on media outlets is censorship that deprives people an alternative point of view.

Restrictions against journalists and media companies undermine the base of the democratic society, she said.

"But the truth will make its way. The EU, the US and their satellites were alone in their anti-Russian sanctions. The rest of the world -- the global majority -- did not join any of the 'packages,' rejecting the restrictions as illegal, hitting the global economy and undermining food and energy security," Zakharova asserted.

The spokeswoman said the EU's "threats" "to punish" third countries if they do not comply with its anti-Russian restrictions "will only strengthen the rejection by the world of the inherently neo-colonial dictatorial policy of the West."