MOSCOW. Oct 14 (Interfax) - The European Union's expected sanctions on Russian citizens over the incident involving opposition activist Alexei Navalny are based on wrong conclusions, are destructive in nature, and have nothing in common with a real dialogue between Russia and European countries, State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee head Leonid Slutsky said.
"They've found those who are not under sanctions yet and decided to tap them on the pretext of Navalny's alleged poisoning. The mechanics is very simple: this mechanics is destructive, mendacious, and insane - and this list of epithets can be further extended," Slutsky told journalists on Wednesday.
The Russians who, according to Western media, are to be subject to sanctions over the Navalny incident have no relation to Navalny, and Russia does not see the possible restrictions as a real indicator of an international dialogue, he said.
"We need simply to exhale and stop. All of this is just political trash, which has nothing in common with a real Russia, nothing in common with those constructive relations that Russia has developed in a very profound way with numerous countries," he said.
The New York Times said with reference to three unnamed EU officials that the EU would impose sanctions related to the Navalny case on six Russians, including first deputy head of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Kiriyenko.
The sanctions are also expected to be applied to Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov, chief of the domestic policy directorate at the Presidential Executive Office Andrei Yarin, presidential envoy to the Siberian Federal District Sergei Menyailo, and Deputy Defense Ministers Pavel Popov and Alexei Krivoruchko.