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Anti-Russian sanctions

MP considers predictable EU keeps sanctions on Russia in place

The EU itself is trapped by sanctions, it is much more difficult to cancel them than to impose, says State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Alexey Pushkov

© EPA/PATRICK SEEGER

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MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. State Duma (lower house) Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Alexey Pushkov said on Wednesday it was predictable that the EU kept sanctions on Russia in place.

“But the European Union itself was "trapped by sanctions". It is much more difficult to cancel sanctions than to impose them,” Pushkov said on Twitter.

On October 28, the ambassadors of 28 EU countries did not issue any recommendations to change the sanctions regime imposed on Russia, a source at the European External Action Service told TASS after a meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union (COREPER).

The ambassadors discussed the impact of sanctions imposed on Russia and the Ukraine crisis after the EU foreign ministers and leaders had held debates on the sanctions. The permanent representatives agreed with the conclusions made at those debates that for the moment there were no reasons to change EU restrictive measures against Russia, the source said.

The EU continues to watch the situation in eastern Ukraine, particularly the implementation of the Minsk protocol, it added.

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Sanctions vs. Russia EU Alexey Pushkov

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