The European Union’s Brussels envoys agreed on Tuesday to extend until the end of January the energy, financial and defense sanctions on Russian Federation over the conflict in Ukraine, but formal approval is still pending, diplomatic sources said.
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Over the past weeks the divide between the parties in Merkel’s “grand coalition” government has widened, with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier leading the push for a more conciliatory approach towards Russian Federation, and a step-by-step easing of sanctions.
It was important that European Union leaders review what progress has been made, if any, to see what could be done to encourage a possible opening, he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow may lift its sanctions if there were assurances that reciprocal measures from the European Union would follow and that it wouldn’t be “once again deceived” by its Western partners.
To this point, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has firmly guided the bloc toward maintaining sanctions, keeping Russia-friendly members of her own government on the sidelines while convincing skeptical states like Slovakia, Hungary, and Italy to set aside their objections and go along.
Western European nations don’t seem to get it, since they weren’t trading much with Russian Federation in the first place, but the prospect of “forever” sanctions are wearing thin on many, with Austrian FM Sebastian Kurz saying he opposed any extension of sanctions longer than six months, and thought the time was nearing to start phasing them out.
United States foreign policy and national security analyst in Atlanta Lawrence J. Korb, however, said the sanctions have had an impact on Russia’s economy and led to a slump.
The EU is Russia’s main trading partner, accounting for 44.8 percent of Russia’s foreign trade previous year.
Important IEF deals for Russian Federation included Royal Dutch/Shell’s signing of a deal with Russia’s Gazprom for a $10 billion liquefied natural gas facility on the Baltic Sea, and Britain’s BP signing a joint venture deal with Rosneft to explore for oil reserves in Siberia. Last week, the sanctions against the Crimea and Sevastopol were extended by one year.
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The EU last week rolled over for another year to June 2017 separate sanctions imposed after Russia’s March 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
