27/03/2020 (Agence Europe) – Russian President Vladimir Putin urged a moratorium on sanctions during the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday 26 March during the G20 leaders’ videoconference. “We should impose a joint moratorium on restrictions on essential goods as well as on financial transactions for their procurement”, he explained, considering that “in the end” this is a “question of life and death, it is a purely humanitarian issue”. According to Mr Putin, “these issues should be freed from politics”. Russia is under sanctions, including European measures, following the illegal annexation of the Crimea and because of its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. The European economic sanctions against Moscow run until 31 July (see EUROPE 12394/34). (CG)