MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. The anti-Russian sanctions have had an opposite effect to the one the European Union had wanted them to make, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, Bloomberg said citing sources in Brussels that in mid-March the European Union plans to extend the sanctions against 100 Russian and Ukrainian nationals for another six months. Among those who may fall under the extended sanctions, according to the agency, might be Arkady Rotenberg, a businessman and co-owner of the Northern Sea Route bank, and Yuri Kovalchu, the biggest stakeholder in the bank Rossiya.
"No blackmailing or threats can be used against Russia. Sanctions against our industry have already had an effect that is opposite to the one the European Union bureaucrats had wanted," Rogozin wrote on his Twitter account.
Following the developments in Ukraine in 2014 and Crimea’s reunification with Russia, the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia and has numerously extended them ever since. Talks on visa-free travel and on a new basic cooperation agreement were suspended. A number of Russian officials were banned to enter the European Union and their assets were frozen. Apart from that, the European Union imposed trade, financial and defense-sector restriction. In all, more than 150 individuals and several dozens of legal entities have been blacklisted by the European Union. Sectoral sanctions were imposed on a number of Russian financial, oil producing and defense entities.