BRUSSELS, October 7. /TASS/. EU’s incoming High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said on Monday she was “slightly surprised” by a declaration on the part of US Vice President Joe Biden that Washington pushed the EU into imposing sanctions against Russia.

Mogherini, who is about to quit the post of Italy’s Foreign Minister and to replace Baroness Catherine Ashton, claimed the sanctions the EU imposed on Russia are beginning to bite and the Russian economy allegedly “is starting to suffer quite a lot”, although she admitted that she is in big doubt whether or not they have exerted any impact on the policy line maintained by President Vladimir Putin.

Regarding Biden’s assertions, she said there was global effort coordinated internationally, and the decisions taken in the European Council have never been easy but they have always been independent.

Biden mentioned in a speech last week the US efforts to make the Europeans “impose real cost on Russia.”

“It is true they didn’t want to do this but again there was America’s leadership and the President of the United State insisting, almost having to embarrass Europe to stand up and take economic hits to impose cost,” he said lecturers and students at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.