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Reuters
Permanent representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said that the EU is “Mature situation” to change policy towards Russia. He told about it in interview to the newspaper “Izvestia”.
According to Chizhov, the EU, in particular, may review the policy of sanctions against Russia. He recalled that towards the end of June, there will be another discussion of one of three packages of sanctions, which expires on 31 July.
“The question is when EU will accumulate enough political will to revise this policy. Whether this will happen in June or six months – it is from the sphere of divination. But in any case it is noticeable that the situation is ripening for the change of course of the EU towards Russia in General and on this issue in particular. There’s a lot of evidence,” – said the diplomat.
The European diplomatic source told TASS that the EU at the upcoming summit of presidents and Prime Ministers, which will be held on June 22-23, will take a decision to extend economic sanctions against Russia by six months.
For the first time the EU imposed sanctions against Moscow in 2014. The European Union has linked the restrictive measures with events in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea to Russia. Since then, the EU has expanded sanctions and extended the term of their action. In particular, was suspended talks on visa-free regime, a ban on entry to the EU for some Russian officials and their assets were frozen. The European Union has imposed restrictions commercial, financial and military. Russia responded to the sanctions and embargo.