TYUMEN. Feb 18 (Interfax) - State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin has called the fresh additions to the anti-Russian sanctions "another silly act."
"This is another silly act as the sanctions definitely fail to achieve their goals. If their authors wanted to stop the civil war, then the sanctions had the opposite effect," Naryshkin told reporters on Wednesday.
Every new package of sanctions "had been a factor encouraging one side, Kyiv officials, and every time Kyiv officials bombed peaceful cities in Donbas with even greater fierceness and vigor," he said.
"I can assure you that the authors of the anti-Russian sanctions are also responsible for thousands of victims in Ukraine," the parliament speaker added.
New individual sanctions of the European Union against 19 individuals and nine legal entities took effect on February 16 in connection with the Ukraine situation.