The US ambassador to the European Union, Mark Gitenstein, advocated, on Tuesday 14 June, for the implementation of the sanctions adopted against Russia, before adopting new measures. The subject of implementation of the measures is expected to be discussed at the G7 summit on 26-28 June in Krün, Germany.
“We have thousands of sanctions. The problem with sanctions is not adding new sanctions (but) enforcing the sanctions. What I’m focussed on is enforcing the sanctions export controls we have. It’s a difficult problem”, he told a small group of journalists, including EUROPE, insisting that he would like to see more action on implementing the measures.
According to the ambassador, the most important problem is the exchange of information. “For example, in the case of the EU to the European Commission as to what’s happening at the Member State level. The competency is at the Member State level, and that’s just a sort of information nightmare in getting all the information there”, he explained.
For, according to Mr Gitenstein, if all sanctions and export controls were fully implemented, “they would have a devastating impact”.
The US diplomat nevertheless said that the effects of the sanctions were beginning to be felt, citing the fields of energy extraction and aviation. “We’ve essentially shut down their civil air industry. They can’t rebuild their airplanes. They can’t get tires, they can’t get GPSs“, he explained.
The ambassador also spoke about the food crisis, “ a difficult issue to resolve”. “The simplest solution to the food security problem is for the Russians to stop bombing supply chains and stealing crops (...). They want to make it look like it’s our problem. It’s not ours. This is their problem. They caused it and they should pay the price”, explained Gitenstein.
Asked about French President Emmanuel Macron’s position not to humiliate Russia, the US ambassador said, in a personal capacity, that “Putin has humiliated himself, perhaps just by the way he acts (...), this level of inhumanity”. “He thinks he is Peter the Great. What can I say?“, he asked. Mr Gitenstein said he has never met his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Chizov, since his arrival in Brussels in January and that a meeting was not planned.
Finally, on granting Ukraine candidate status for EU membership, the ambassador said that for his country, Ukraine’s future is in Europe. “But this is a decision for the European Council. It is not our decision, politics is the art of the possible. Anything that Europeans can do to bring Ukraine as close to Europe as possible is good from our point of view”, he stressed. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)