Zakharova called US sanctions the best advertisement for a ceramic company in Kaluga

The new US sanctions against the ceramic firm Perko Julleuchter in Kaluga are the best advertisement for it, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RBC. Washington announced the sanctions on June 5: the list included seven Russians and one company, which, as stated by the US Treasury Department, is associated with them. The reason for the introduction of restrictions in the message of the American department indicated their connection with the anti-government protests that took place in Moldova in February and March. The demonstrators demanded the resignation of incumbent President Maia Sandu.

“What, for example, could the ceramic workshop in Kaluga, which makes clay and porcelain lamps, be guilty of before the US authorities? Apparently, its employees, in their free time, set the people of Moldova against the pernicious course of the pro-American regime [President of Moldova] Maia Sandu. But seriously, the best commercial advertising for our individual entrepreneurs and artists is difficult to come up with,” she said.

Zakharova added that American "personal restrictions and prohibitions, which have already gone beyond the reasonable, are becoming more and more strange and difficult to explain." The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that "the hostile American attack, carried out clearly at the instigation of the Chisinau puppets of the United States," will not go unanswered.

The Russians were included in the SDN (Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons) sanctions list. US citizens and legal entities are prohibited from doing business with persons and organizations that fall into it .

The sanctioned company Perko Julleuchter from Kaluga, which produces porcelain and ceramic products, and associated with it Alexei Losev, who, according to the United States, "was intelligence in Moldova for a plot to destabilize the government," and along with others Russians on the list participated in "a conspiracy to capitalize on these protests and seize Government House".

Protests took place in Chisinau and other cities of Moldova in February and March. They were organized with the participation of the opposition Shor party. The protesters demanded that the authorities pay their utility bills and called on the government to resign. There were clashes between security forces and protesters.

During protests in March, Moldovan police detained seven people. Then the police reported that they had uncovered a network of agents associated with Russia, whose activities were aimed at destabilizing the country. The Russian authorities denied involvement in the protests.