BERLIN, August 07. /ITAR-TASS/. German business expresses concern over mutual sanctions over Ukraine, urging Russia and the European Union to get down to the negotiating table.

“It is especially important in the current situation to stop a spiral of sanctions and retaliatory measures, getting back to the negotiating table,” said Eckhard Cordes, head of Germany’s Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations in comments on Russia’s ban on imports of Western agricultural products.

He said the contact group on Ukraine should initiate the process of a peaceful settlement in the country. “Otherwise we are at a risk of getting investor uncertainty in the long term, Russia’s growing isolation and its drifting from the West, as well as damage to the development of business climate all over Europe,” Cordes said.

The Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations presents the interests of about 6,000 German companies operating in Russia.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a decree on countermeasures to Western sanctions, which prohibits or restricts, for one year, the import of certain kinds of agricultural products, raw materials and food originating in a country that has imposed economic sanctions against Russian companies and (or) individuals or has joined such sanctions.