BRUSSELS, March 4. /TASS/. Permanent representatives of 27 member states of the European Union agreed to renew individual sanctions against Russians expiring on March 15 for six more months, a source in the EU Council told TASS on Wednesday.

"Individual sanctions against Russian individual and legal entities were renewed for six months at the morning meeting of Permanent Representatives without a discussion. The decision should be formally approved by the EU Council now," the source said.

The EU Council is expected to endorse the decision without a discussion on March 12 and it will then be published in the official journal of the European Union.

In 2014, the EU began to impose sanctions on Russian and Ukrainian citizens in connection with "actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine." Since that time, it has blacklisted 175 people, including citizens of Russia and Ukraine and 44 legal entities, mainly executive bodies and military forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR).

Currently there are several packages of EU sanctions operating against Russia: economic measures, individual restrictive measures and restrictions against Crimea. The anti-Crimean restrictions are a package of targeted sanctions against Crimea, with which the European businesses are banned to support any ties.