US Responsibility for Ukraine’s Conflict Evident for Whole World – Lawmaker

The anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the US and its "satellites" are meant to deflect the blame away from Ukraine’s crisis, Russia's State Duma speaker said.

NEW DEHLI (Sputnik) — The US government is responsible for the conflict in Ukraine and the economic sanctions imposed against Russia only deflect the blame away from it, Russia's lower house of parliament speaker said on Friday.

“The US government’s blame for these developments [the conflict in Ukraine] is substantial and self-evident for the whole world,” Sergey Naryshkin said in New Delhi at a roundtable on Russian-Indian cooperation which was part of a BRICS project.

The economic sanctions against Russia imposed “by the United States and its satellites” are meant to deflect the blame away from Ukraine’s crisis, Naryshkin added. The Russian Parliament’s speaker reiterated that the anti-Russian sanctions were a tool of “economic blackmail that has nothing to do with the norms of international law”.

Western countries have blamed Russia for escalating tensions in crisis-hit Ukraine, with Moscow repeatedly rebuffing the allegations.

Earlier in February, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again reiterated that the Ukrainian standoff was not caused by Russia, but emerged as a response to the attempts of the United States and its allies to impose their will on other states.

As for the sanctions, Putin called them a feeble attempt to isolate Russia and dismissed the risk of "catastrophic consequences" for the Russian economy.