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Anti-Russian sanctions

Extending sanctions against Russia EU engages in economic masochism - Russian Railways CEO

As TASS previously reported, on June 17 European Union Council agreed to extend economic sanctions against Russia for another six months at the level of permanent representatives

Head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin (left) TASS/Yevgeniy Kurskov

Head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin (left)

© TASS/Yevgeniy Kurskov

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EU Council agreed to extend sanctions against Russia at permanent representative level

ST. PETERSBURG, June 18. /TASS/. Extending economic sanctions against Russia, the European Union, engages in economic masochism, the Head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin told TASS Thursday.

"I think that the European Union is engaged in an exercise that has a very specific definition and is called economic masochism," he said.

As TASS previously reported, on June 17 European Union Council agreed to extend economic sanctions against Russia for another six months at the level of permanent representatives. The issue of toughening the sanctions was not discussed. The formal decision could be made on June 22 at the European Union Council meeting.

Sanctions against Russia were imposed by the European Union on August 1, 2014 and were toughened in September and lightened in October, when under the influence of the credit restrictions against Russia European subsidiaries of Russian state-owned banks were partially withdrawn.

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