European sanctions against Russia extended for six months

The European Union has extended economic sanctions against Russia for another six months, a source in the European External Action Services said.

"The decision to extend the restrictive measures has been taken," TASS cited the announcement as saying.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said before the meeting of the Foreign Ministers that the sanctions will be extended for another six months.

The president of the Union of Oil and Gas Producers of Russia, member of the Council for Information and Cooperation of the Fuel and Energy Complex, Gennady Schmal, said that a six-month extension of the sanctions against the Russian oil industry won't affect it.

Schmal said that the restriction of the activities of Russian banks is a more important thing for the industry. "The main thing is the prevention of access to finance, which complicates the existence of our oil companies. Our banking system, unfortunately, still doesn't offer long-term loans, interest rates are still quite high," the president of the Union of Oil and Gas Producers of Russia said.

The chairman of the National Foreign Exchange organization, Dmitry Piskulov, in his turn, noted that the extension of the sanctions will affect the well-being of the Russian banking system in the same way as now.

According to him, currently there is stabilization and improvement of the situation, with a growth of capitalization and recapitalization of banks, as well as an improvement in the external economic environment in terms of the rise in oil prices. In this respect, Dmitry Piskulov thinks that there will not be a repetition of December 2014 this winter. "Now, thanks to administrative measures, the Bank of Russia has achieved a balance of demand and supply in the foreign exchange market and, accordingly, a situation of sharp jumps is excluded," Dmitri Piskulov concluded.