On Tuesday 6 November, David Tessler, from the American State Department sanctions coordination group, urged Europeans not to review the sanctions imposed on Russia at a time when Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has on several occasions called the economic sanctions against Moscow into question (see EUROPE 12064, 12120).
These measures run until 31 January 2019 and will be reviewed at the European Council in mid-December 2018.
"I feel strongly that the transatlantic community must remain strong, that our sanctions must remain strong until we see the behaviour change in Moscow that we are looking for", he told several media, including EUROPE, during a visit to Brussels. Tessler thus called for the sanctions not to be softened until Russia changes its attitude. He said the threat was becoming worse and that it was therefore necessary "to increase the cost in order to change this very aggressive behaviour". "That’s my message across Europe. We must focus on maintaining pressure until the behaviour changes, and we have to do that together", he said, without mentioning Italy by name.
"The EU is doing a lot" in terms of sanctions, he said, mentioning the measures recently taken by the EU, be it in terms of chemical weapons, resilience in the face of disinformation or sanctions linked to cyberattack activities.
When asked about the Italian arguments that economic sanctions apparently have a significant cost on the Italian economy, Tessler stated that the sanctions had a cost for everyone. "There cannot be free sanctions", he said.
Tessler underlined transatlantic cooperation. In his view, "the success of the policy (on Russia) depends on close cooperation with Europe to really advance our foreign policy towards Russia, protect our shared interests and counter our shared threat". "We are coordinated in our approach, we try our best to take action together, to show the unity of purpose and results (...) on the threat Russia poses", he added.
In Tessler's view, the EU and US must fight together against Russia's interference in the European and American democracies. "We need together to combat this threat, not as a theoretical danger but as a clear and present problem", he said. "We need to do that together. Europe is doing a lot here to try to coordinate" the actions, he added.
Tessler also hailed the European proposals for a list of sanctions for people accused of violating human rights throughout the world (see EUROPE 12125). The US has had such a list, known as the Global Magnitsky Act, since 2016. "I think it would be a good idea on the human rights front and corruption (...) It would be a big step forward for Europe", he commented, proposing to share the US experience with Europeans. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)