Elena Panina, a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, commented on the decision of the European Union to extend economic sanctions against Russia. She spoke on this topic on Thursday, December 17th.
According to Panina, EU politicians need to familiarize themselves with the research of German economists, according to which anti-Russian sanctions cost the EU € 21 billion annually.
“For all the years of the sanctions war, the EU has lost over € 100 billion, and this is according to the most conservative estimates. Against this background, Russia was forced to look for new solutions, and today the EU is no longer its main trading partner, “Panina told RIA Novosti.
According to her, the sanctions not only do not serve to bring peace in Donbass, but have the exact opposite effect.
“Today, sanctions are primarily political support for the ultra-right forces in Ukraine, which disrupt the implementation of the Minsk agreements, which intimidated President Zelensky (President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky – Ed.), Forcing him to abandon his initial peace-loving statements,” the MP said.
The fact that the European Union officially extended for six months the economic sanctions against Russia, introduced in 2014, became known earlier on Thursday. The EU said in a statement that the council decided to extend the restrictive measures in force in certain sectors of the Russian economy until July 31, 2021.
On December 10, it became known that the summit of the heads of state of the European Union decided to extend economic sanctions against Russia. The previously introduced restrictions will expire on January 31, 2021.
At the end of November, a representative of a delegation from one of the countries announced the extension of the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions. He explained that the topic of the Minsk talks on the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine will be “briefly” touched upon, within the framework of which the leaders will take a decision to extend the sanctions, since “there is no significant progress in their implementation.”
In relation to the Russian Federation, the EU countries imposed sanctions in 2014 due to reunification with Crimea and the situation in Ukraine. Since then, the restrictions have been extended several times. Moscow introduced counter-sanctions.