Brussels, 22/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 21 December, Russia criticised the EU's preference to extend sanctions against it rather than cooperate in the fight against terrorism.
“Forced to admit that instead build [sic] constructive cooperation in countering the key challenges of our time, such as international terrorism, (…) Brussels prefer to continue to play short-sighted sanctions games”, Russia's foreign minister said in a press release a few minutes after the European decision to extend the economic sanctions against Russia for six months (see EUROPE 11458).
The minister also believed it was “artificial and groundless” for the Europeans to link the sanctions to the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict. In his view, this decision is also “hypocritical” because “the EU is trying to 'punish' Russia for the fact that it is independent from” the EU. It is not Moscow that “unleashed” the conflict, and Russia has “consistently assist [sic] settlement of the conflict”, he states, also calling on the EU to urge Ukraine to implement the Minsk agreements.
The extension of the sanctions was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 22 December, and they now run until 31 July 2016. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)