US sanctions on Russia over British poisoning case illegal and against international law: Kremlin

After the US imposed stiff sanctions on Russia over alleged use of nerve gas on a former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, in Britain, the Russian embassy in the US called the measure "draconian".

Also Read: US says it will impose sanctions on Russia for nerve agent attack in UK

The Trump administration's sanctions on Russia will come in two tranches, in the first US exports will target national security related goods and in the second to be activated after 90 days if Moscow fails to provide "reliable assurances" it will no longer use chemical weapons and allow on-site inspections by the United Nations or other international observer groups.

However, as the US imposed sanctions, Russia said Washington's view on the Skripal case was "not backed by evidence."

"On August 8, 2018 our Deputy Chief of Mission was informed in the State Department of new "draconian" sanctions against Russia for far-fetched accusations of using the "Novichok" nerve agent against a UK citizen," the Russian embassy in the US said in a statement.

"We have grown accustomed to not hearing any facts or evidence," it added.

Kremlin called the sanctions "illegal" asserting that it was against international law. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the US move was "absolutely unfriendly," but said Moscow continued to hope that for an improvement in battered US-Russia relations.

"Making a linking to these events (the British poisoning) is for us unacceptable and such restrictions like those passed by the American side earlier are absolutely illegal and do not correspond to international law," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Meanwhile, the British foreign secretary thanked the US for imposing sanctions on Russia, asserting that Russia will have a price to pay for using chemical weapons.

"If we are going to stop chemical and biological weapons - including nerve agents - becoming a new and horrific 21st cent (century) norm, states like Russia that use or condone their use need to know there is a price to pay. Thank you USA for standing firm with us on this," Hunt said .

As the news spread the Russian rouble tumbled to a near two-year low.