State Duma deputies did not see harm in EU sanctions because of the DPR and LPR

State Duma deputies believe that EU sanctions due to the recognition of the DNR and LNR will not affect them

The EU introduced new measures after Russia recognized the DNR and LNR. The sanctions list included 351 people who voted in favor of such a move. Deputies interviewed by RBC believe that the sanctions will not have a significant impact on them

Deputies of the State Duma commented on the decision of the European Union to impose sanctions against them because of support for the recognition of the DPR and LPR. In total, 351 legislators were included in the EU sanctions list – those who voted for the corresponding appeal to the president on February 15.

Leonid Kalashnikov, a deputy from the Communist Party faction, told RBC that he has been under sanctions since 2014, when Crimea was annexed to Russia, “so let them introduce it.” “It’s strange: they don’t impose sanctions against businessmen, but they impose sanctions against deputies who fulfill the will of the people who elected them. Good idea,” he added.

Kalashnikov stressed that “deputies should not be subject to any sanctions, especially extraterritorial ones.”

LDPR MP Stanislav Naumov called the sanctions an “absolutely empty gesture” that only reflects the correctness of the Russian decision. He suggested that the EU will have more than once a reason to include Russian legislators “in one or another sanctions list” and that the list will soon be expanded to 400 people “who voted today” – for agreements on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with the republics of Donbass . “We need to be calm about this and understand that this is part of modern politics, in this case the European bureaucracy. But they, with their scarecrows, horror stories, are several decades behind. And with these sanctions, they will not take a single deputy to show off, ”the LDPR member warned.

Naumov added that the points of the agreements with the DPR and LPR will be taken under parliamentary control for their most complete implementation. In particular, he advocated the creation of privileged conditions for school graduates of the DPR and LPR in 2022 when entering universities, as well as the work of Russian student teams “at various facilities on the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.”