The European Union and the United States imposed economic sanctions and kicked Russian Federation out of the G8 group of nations.
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Juncker is set to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin later Thursday in the first such meeting in Russian Federation since the European Union slapped sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine conflict in 2014.
Italian businesses signed deals worth 1.4 billion euros during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Russian Federation on Thursday.
Putin is hosting Juncker as well as Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the three-day conference in Russia’s second city just weeks before the expiry of European Union sanctions that have helped plunge Russia’s economy into recession. The EU insists it is still linking the lifting of sanctions to the total fulfilment of a floundering peace deal to end the conflict in Ukraine and that the current failure to make headway on the agreement should see sanctions extended when they run out at the end of July.
Moscow has sought to maintain good ties with Rome.
“We don’t go around trying to convince our European and American partners to lift the sanctions”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.
When asked about the impact of sanctions on his business, ExxonMobil’s CEO Rex Tillerson said “it’s a question for the government – if there’s any USA government official who would like to respond”.
The EU imposed sanctions against the Russian Federation in 2014 in connection with the crisis in Ukraine. France’s Total is working with Russia’s largely private gas producer on a liquefied natural gas project.
The fact that the chief executives of top American companies have in a sense defied their government shows that they put their business interests before any political considerations, analysts say. I believe that the peace and prosperity of humankind lie in openness and exchange.
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Russia’s energy-driven economy – hit by both the West’s punitive measures and the drop in oil prices – has slumped into the longest recession since Putin came to power some 16 years ago.
