Brussels, 18/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 17 February, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban assured Russia's President Vladimir Putin that the European sanctions linked to the Ukrainian crisis would not be extended automatically.
“I don't think there will be an opportunity to extend the sanctions automatically in the middle of this year”, he said at a press conference with Putin in Russia. “More and more countries have begun to understand that we need to cooperate”, he said, according to comments translated into Russian.
The sanctions against Russia, linked to the full implementation of the Minsk agreements, were extended on 22 January and now run until 31 July 2016.
Putin thought it “insane” to link the lifting of the sanctions to the respect of the Minsk agreements because, in his view, it is the up to the Ukrainian government to talk to the Ukrainian (Ed: pro-Russian) rebels for the implementation of these agreements.
Guy Verhofstadt wants additional sanctions. By contrast, the leader of the European Parliament's ALDE Group, Guy Verhofstadt, called on High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini on Tuesday 16 February to prepare additional sanctions against Moscow - this time in response to the “Russian attacks against civilians” in Syria. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)