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Anti-Russian sanctions stay but Europe reluctant to toughen them - opinion

MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. Most European countries have not jumped at the idea of toughening the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions and the factor means a defeat for Ukraine, as well as for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Dr. Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the State Duma foreign policy committee twittered on Monday.

"The sanctions haven’t been lifted but the idea of toughening them has failed to deliver, as the majority of the Europeans haven’t accepted it, and that’s a defeat for Kiev, the Baltics and the like," he wrote.

Earlier on Monday the EU Council of Foreign Ministers prolonged the anti-Russian economic sanctions for another six months through to January 31, 2016.