Updated 07:47 p.m. Moscow Time
GENEVA, October 3 (RIA Novosti) - Western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine are a tool of political and economic blackmail used under pressure from the United States, Speaker of the lower house of Russian parliament, Sergei Naryshkin said Friday.
"We fully realize that the so-called economic sanctions have been pressed by Washington. We also realize that it is a tool of political blackmail," Naryshkin told reporters on the sidelines of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly's meeting in Geneva.
"It is a reproachful policy. Respectable people don't act like that," Naryshkin stressed.
Russian politicians have repeatedly referred to the language of sanctions as "counterproductive," saying that such measures "threaten international peace and stability." President Vladimir Putin responded to the measures by saying that the sanctions are ineffective and never yield any results but only inflict certain damage on those who use them.
For several months now, the European Union and the United States have been hitting Russia with sanctions over Moscow's alleged role in the Ukrainian crisis. In response to western sanctions, in August Moscow has implemented a one-year ban on certain food imports from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and Norway.
Since the deterioration of Russia's relations with the West, Moscow has increased its cooperation with Latin America, BRICS and Asia-Pacific.