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Franco-Russian Dialogue Association urges the EU not to apply sanctions against Russia

PARIS, April 17, /ITAR-TASS/. The Franco-Russian Dialogue Association has called on the European Union to refrain from applying a policy of sanctions against Russia, Thierry Mariani, a deputy of the French National Assembly, told journalists on Wednesday.

The Association’s General Assembly passed a resolution urging the European Union to give up its plans to apply sanctions against Russia.

“This policy contradicts the interests of France and Russia,” Mariani stressed.

“Members of the French-Russian Dialogue come out for conciliation and the ongoing dialogue and cooperation between our countries,” he said, noting that “the interests of Europe and Russia remained common and the way of tensions and sanctions would contradict mutually beneficial interests,” Mariani said, adding that he considered sanctions targeted against individuals “to be extremely unfair”.

The Franco-Russian Dialogue Association was founded in Paris in 2004 on the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Jacques Chirac who had taken the association under personal patronage.

The association’s key idea is to strengthen and promote dialogue between the civil societies of Russia and France.

Vladimir Yakunin, the head of the Russian Railways Company, is the association’s president from the Russian side.