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Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the European Union

Submitted on 2015-06-21 22:00:00

Comment on the EU Council’s decision to renew economic sanctions against Russia

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Comment by the Information and Press Department on the EU Council’s decision to renew economic sanctions against Russia

On June 22, the European Council on Foreign Relations agreed to extend the sectoral economic restrictive measures against Russia until January 31, 2016.

The fact that the views of the Russophobic lobby in the EU have prevailed again, leading to the illegal decision to renew the sanctions, has left us deeply disappointed. At the same time, Brussels is deliberately forgetting that this will inevitably cost hundreds of thousands, and, according to some estimates, several million Europeans their jobs.

The EU automatically continues to put all the responsibility for the full implementation of the Minsk Agreements on Russia. The absurdity of this approach has long been clear to all. The key to the Ukrainian crisis settlement has always been and still is in the hands of Kiev, which is in no hurry to fulfil its commitments.
It appears particularly cynical that the EU adopted the decision to extend the anti-Russian sanctions on June 22, the day Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Still, I would rather see it as a coincidence, not a deliberate move.

June 22, 2015