MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. The decision of G7 leaders to extend the anti-Russian sanctions will not benefit the global economy, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"We do not think such decisions may definitely have a positive effect for the global economy and the global affairs at large, while these topics are actually the main ones in the focus of this forum [G7]," Peskov said.
"The position [of Moscow on sanctions] has not changed: we are still confident this is not an issue of our agenda," he added.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the G7 countries, which are signaling about the importance of extending the anti-Russia sanctions, ignore obvious things, namely, the need for Kiev to fulfill the Minsk accords on the political settlement in east Ukraine.
‘We’re not surprised that the so-called G7 Group sends signals on the sanctions theme time and again," the Russian diplomat said.
"They are absurd to a considerable degree because the participants in this group mention Russia’s fulfillment of the Minsk agreements as the condition for cancelling the sanctions," Ryabkov said.
As the Russian high-placed diplomat said, "the demands on the pullout of foreign troops from Donbass have nothing to do with reality because by definition there are no foreign troops on the territory of Donbass."
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"The second demand set to us about the need for Kiev to regain control of all the sections of the border with Russia is prescribed in the Minsk accords as the concluding stage of their fulfillment," the Russian deputy foreign minister said.
"That is, the G7 Group again puts the cart before the horse, ignoring obvious things, which have to be addressed to the Ukrainian authorities because precisely these authorities are not fulfilling the Minsk accords in their key aspects," he said.
As UK Prime Minister David Cameron said at a press conference on Friday on the results of the two-day G7 summit in Japan, the Group's countries had agreed on the importance of extending the anti-Russia sanctions in June. According to Cameron, the restrictions should remain in force until the Minsk accords are implemented in full.