Anti-Russian sanctions continue to split Europe

Anti-Russian sanctions continue to split Europe

After the conclusion of the Minsk agreements and the gradual stabilization of the situation in the south-east of Ukraine, the question about the future of anti-Russian sanctions loomed on the horizon for European politicians.

 

Many countries, where those sanctions boomeranged, expressed the need for their removal. However, pressure on the EU from the United States does not allow it. The head of the European Council, Donald Tusk, in an interview with the New York Times, said that Europe is not yet ready to strengthen sanctions against Russia.

 

Now, he said, "it is impossible" to reach an agreement on this issue among the EU member countries. Tusk said that "some politicians in Europe still hope" that Russia will change its policy towards Ukraine. However, the head of the European Council stressed that he is "skeptical about it." Due to the nature of it's functioning, the EU cannot make decisions on Russia as quickly as Washington would like. "Consensus among 28 democracies is a very complex process," the head of the Council of Europe said. 

 

Tusk also said that the adoption of the Minsk Agreement on Ukraine has not led to a complete resolution of the conflict in the east of the country, but has still "improved the situation." 

 

At the same time, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is now on a visit to Japan, called for the preservation of sanctions against Russia in connection with the situation in Ukraine, but recognized the need to find ways toward a diplomatic dialogue. At the meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the leaders will discuss, among other things, ways of cooperation between the two countries in the G7 in relation to Russia and the situation in Ukraine. The positions of Berlin and Tokyo are close, according to Japanese observers, because, while remaining members of the G7, they both need to avoid a sharp confrontation with Russia. Germany is tied to the Russian economy by so-called energy dependence, Japan does not want to spoil relations with Russia because of the need to conclude a peace treaty and resolve territorial issues.

 

The deputy dean of the Faculty of Global Economics and International Affairs of the Higher School of Economics National Research University, Andrei Suzdaltsev, previously told Vestnik Kavkaza that the West will not lift the sanctions against Russia, regardless of Russian mediation efforts in the conflict in Ukraine. 

 

"The fact is that initially, when the Minsk Agreement was signed, the West in the personae of Merkel and Hollande and Obama said that Russia will be responsible for everything that happens in the Donbass, and unilaterally. From the start, the Ukrainian side was absolved from criticism, and now it continues to inform the world, filling the information space with messages that Ukraine is being shelled by militias. And it's taken on trust, without any verification. There is evidence that guns are buried and tanks are moving in circles. But Russia is guilty a priori, therefore we must remember that the West is not going to loosen the grip of sanctions," he explained.

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