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Lithuania’s top diplomat: Lifting anti-Russian sanctions would contradict EU principles

The Lithuanian foreign minister has responded to the statement of former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi who called to lift sanctions against Russia immediately

VILNIUS, January 26. /TASS/. The calls to review the sanctions against Moscow and cancel them run counter to the basic principles of European politics, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said on Thursday.

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Italian top diplomat urges EU and US to solve sanctions issue together

"This (statement on the need to lift sanctions) is absolutely against the principles on which we had agreed," Linkevicius told the Ziniu Radijas radio. The top Lithuanian diplomat said sanctions show the political will as Europe "underlines that our partners should respect international law and that we will not tolerate the non-compliance with it."

The Lithuanian foreign minister responded to the statement of former Italian Prime Minister and ex-European Commission President Romano Prodi who called to lift sanctions against Russia immediately. Linkevicius said this statement was regrettable. "A call to compete on who likes Russia the most is heard in it," he said. "If we do not stick to our principles and values, we won’t be able to expect others to respect them."

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