John Tefft
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Tefft gave interview to the newspaper “Kommersant”, in which he spoke about the problems in Russian-American relations.
He pointed out that Washington is ready to cancel part of sanctions against Russia if progress in resolving the situation in Donbass, but for now, the parties don’t even come close to this goal.
This Tefft noted that anti-Russian US sanctions have not led to a reversal of the situation in Ukraine. “Nevertheless, I believe that Russia has paid a serious price for its military actions against Ukraine. First of all, it affected its access to financial markets. But you’d have to ask the Russian businessmen who directly face these problems,” the diplomat added.
He also believes that between the EU and the USA is split on the issue of policy towards Russia. “Yes, there are differences, but I’m not immersed in the negotiations between American and European officials and cannot comment on them. But between the United States and our allies there are always some differences, whether in the framework of NATO, in relations with the EU or on a bilateral level. And that’s absolutely fine. (…) With the EU we now have really different approaches to issues of trade and several other topics. But the split over the issue of Russia speech does not go” — said Tefft.
Member States of the EU, US and several other countries have introduced restrictive measures against Russia in 2014 and linking them with the annexation of Crimea, and then — with the conflict in the South-East of Ukraine. Moscow imposed a ban on food exports from most countries, which supported anti-Russian sanctions.
The abolition of the restrictive measures, the West is linked to the implementation by Moscow of Minsk agreements — a package of measures to stabilize the situation in the South-East of Ukraine. This document, in particular, envisages a ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the contact line of the warring parties, and constitutional reform in the Republic.
Moscow has stated that it is not a party to the conflict in the Donbass, and the responsibility for the implementation of the agreements lies on Kiev. Russia stressed that the accession of Crimea was fully consistent with international norms.