Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia's Chechen Republic, warned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell against threatening Russia with sanctions or they will face harsh response measures.
Kadyrov, who took to Telegram on Sunday, stated that the region is ready to take revenge and impose tit-for-tat sanctions if the EU leaders won't go back on their statements.
"I want to say that the whole set of sanctions against Russia is so absurd that we can only laugh at these fruitless attempts. They froze the void there. Total embarrassment!" the region's head wrote.
The Chechen leader noted that nonetheless, the time "has come for tough revenge," and retaliatory measures must be equal in strength. If Johnson, Truss, von der Leyen and Borrell do not retract their statements, Kadyrov reserved the right to impose the following sanctions against them:
close Chechen airspace to their personal jets;
freeze all of Johnson's ruble assets in Chechen banks;
introduce an embargo on all assets of the British oligarchs in the village of Achkhoy-Martan (located some 40km from the republic's capital Grozny), and in case of the situation getting worse, even in the neighboring village of Samashki;
recognize left-hand traffic as a vile relic of the Middle Ages;
and, finally admit that there is "no such thing as an English tea!"
In order to completely intimidate European politicians, the head of the Russian region gave them a rather short time period to comply with his demands, just until February 31.
The politician underscored that such "harsh" measures will set an example for other states as well.
"Think before imposing any sanctions," Kadyrov concluded.
In response to Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, after Donbas requested help amid Kiev's aggression, Western countries imposed a new batch of anti-Russian sanctions, the first of which appeared back in 2014.
Several major Russian banks, including Sberbank and VTB, fell under the new restrictions. In addition, Germany stopped the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, and the UK closed its airspace for Aeroflot, the country's biggest airline.
On Friday, both the Russian president himself and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were personally sanctioned. Their assets in Europe and the UK were frozen, but they were not banned from entering the EU. The Russian Foreign Ministry responded to the personal sanctions against them by saying that neither Putin nor Lavrov had any assets in the UK and outside of Russia at all.