Photo:
RIA Novosti
BRUSSELS, July 12. /TASS/. At the meeting of the foreign Ministers of Russia and Belgium the issue of the abolition of EU sanctions against the Russian Federation when discussing the situation in the East of Ukraine was not raised. This was stated on Wednesday, Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after talks with Belgian counterpart Didier Reynders.
“We talked in detail today about our feelings on the work in the “Norman format” in the contact group, about what’s really going on, but about sanctions, we are not talking” – said Lavrov.
“When the EU talked about the fact that in the case of punishment of Russia policy should prevail over the economy, of course it speaks for itself, it should not be in a normal life,” he said.
The Russian foreign Minister also noted that the formula EU to lift sanctions after Russia fulfils the Minsk agreements, in fact, became “a direct message to President Poroshenko”. “Signal was the fact that the Ukrainian government may fail to implement the Minsk agreements, and thereby keep the anti-Russian sanctions, as the Ukrainian leadership is very interested to keep afloat in a very difficult situation in the country”, – concluded Lavrov.