The European Union (EU) plans in mid-March to extend sanctions against 100 citizens of Russia and Ukraine for another six months. On Sunday, February 5, reports Bloomberg, citing sources in Brussels.
The EU sanctions that include a ban on entry into the territory of the interstate Association and the freezing of assets, ends March 15 of the current year. “European politicians and diplomats will have to exercise caution and to adhere to the status quo,” said one of the sources.
A number of European politicians in favour of the complete abolition or mitigation of anti-Russian sanctions. So, the foreign Minister of Hungary péter Szijjártó believes that the restrictive measures are “ineffective and harmful” for the European economy and for the Russian Federation. His Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz has called for a gradual lifting of sanctions.
The Prime Minister of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition CDU/CSU, has advocated the removal of restrictive measures in 2017. The leader of the French party “national front” candidate for President marine Le Pen believes that sanctions have created large economic problems for the EU.
November 9, 2016 the Council of the European Union to blacklist the EU has decided to add six deputies of the state Duma of the seventh convocation from the Crimea and Sevastopol. Now in the black list of Brussels are 152 people and 37 organizations (the last of these sanctions was extended in September). The list of Russian politicians (including Crimea), military officials and businessmen, representatives of the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk national republics (DND and LNR). The Russian foreign Ministry announced retaliatory measures, stressing that the question of the return of the Peninsula in structure of Russia was completely resolved.
Brussels began to introduce restrictive measures against Moscow on the accession of Crimea to Russia and the conflict in the South-East of Ukraine in 2014. In addition to these, there are also two packages of sanctions against several sectors of the Russian economy (prolonged until 31 January 2017), as well as sanctions against the Crimea (extended until 23 June 2017).