Senator slams idea to impose sanctions on Russia over Syria

Russian Politics & Diplomacy October 07, 2016, 17:15

A Russian senator says the idea shows that the EU politicians don’t think about the vital interests of the people

MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. The idea to impose sanctions against Russia over the situation in Syria shows that the politicians in the European Union have lost their connection to the reality and don’t think about the vital interests of the people, the deputy head of Russia’s Federation Council Committee for International Affairs Andei Klimov told a press conference.

The chairman of the Bundestag (German parliament) Committee on Foreign Affairs Norbert Rottgen had confirmed earlier that Germany was indeed ready to impose sanctions against Russia over the situation in Syria, the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported.

"The trouble with Europe is that the EU politicians have lost all connections to the needs of their people and the business community," Klimov stated. Those responsible for the future of the European economy are guided by the interests of a small group of people whom they consider to be some kind of a political club, and also the interests of the US, instead of focusing on the interests of their taxpayers," the senator added.

"In this regard, common sense says that sanctions are damaging the EU," he noted citing the data according to which the EU was losing from €200 million to €400 million every day in the wake of the anti-Russian sanctions. At the same time, the senator stressed that damage to the Russian economy was less since Moscow continued to export energy resources to the EU while the EU countries were incurring damage as they had been deprived of the opportunity to export their agricultural products to Russia.

"It is a pity that such signals are received from Germany who has no choice but to cooperate with Russia, but the people who take these steps have long abandoned reality and common sense," Klimov said.

He considers the pretext for imposing sanctions against Russia over its operation in Syria to be far-fetched, since the Western countries have chosen to blame Russia rather than condemn the countries that were carrying out military operations on the territory of a sovereign state, a UN member, while "Russia has been destroying terrorist facilities at the request of the Syrian government."

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