EU Leaders Set to Prolong Russia Sanctions Again
BRUSSELS (Dispatches) - European Union leaders will next week extend until the end of January economic sanctions against Russia over its intervention in Ukraine, diplomats and officials said.
The curbs on Russia’s energy, defense and financial sectors have been prolonged every six months since first being slapped mid-2014 after Moscow annexed the peninsula of Crimea from Kiev.
EU leaders meeting in Brussels on June 28-29 will agree another six-month extension of the curbs on doing business with Russia currently in place until the end of July.
Moscow vows to never return Crimea and the east Ukraine conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and turned into a frozen confrontation, with low-intensity, sporadic fighting still taking place regularly.
The decision follows talks between the world’s seven most industrialized countries (G7) who met in Canada earlier in June. The format used to be held as G8 but Russia was kicked out in 2014 over Crimea.
Since then, the leaders of the world’s leading powers have used their annual meetings to coordinate their stance. This year, they called on Moscow to stop undermining democracies and said in their statement:
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said he wanted to re-admit Russia but also signed up for another sanctions extension at the meeting in Canada, the first major international gathering for the head of the new populist government.
The curbs on Russia’s energy, defense and financial sectors have been prolonged every six months since first being slapped mid-2014 after Moscow annexed the peninsula of Crimea from Kiev.
EU leaders meeting in Brussels on June 28-29 will agree another six-month extension of the curbs on doing business with Russia currently in place until the end of July.
Moscow vows to never return Crimea and the east Ukraine conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and turned into a frozen confrontation, with low-intensity, sporadic fighting still taking place regularly.
The decision follows talks between the world’s seven most industrialized countries (G7) who met in Canada earlier in June. The format used to be held as G8 but Russia was kicked out in 2014 over Crimea.
Since then, the leaders of the world’s leading powers have used their annual meetings to coordinate their stance. This year, they called on Moscow to stop undermining democracies and said in their statement:
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said he wanted to re-admit Russia but also signed up for another sanctions extension at the meeting in Canada, the first major international gathering for the head of the new populist government.