BERLIN, November 16. /TASS/. Germany’s Vice Chancellor and Minister for Economics and Energy Sigmar Gabriel said on Sunday he was against possible new anti-Russian sanctions and increased NATO’s activity along eastern borders.

Russia’s position “cannot be changed by extra sanctions alone,” he told the ARD television channel. “I don’t think it will help from the economic point of view. It will only aggravate the situation. That is why I believe the best way is the combination of what we are having now (the existing sanctions) and attempts at political influencing.”

“It is right that (Chancellor) Angela Merkel and (Foreign Minister) Frank-Walter Steinmeier are focused on dialogue, not on confrontation, like others. I think it to be an absolutely wrong reaction when NATO’s constantly rattles the sabre near Russia’s borders,” he noted.