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Germany’s foreign minister against tougher sanctions against Russia

Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that Russia had paid its price for Ukraine’s crisis by lost confidence and the falling ruble against the background of plummeting prices of energy resources
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
© Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

BERLIN, December 19. /TASS/. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier stands against the European Union’s tougher sanctions on Russia, he said in an interview with the Spiegel magazine. The extracts were published online on Friday.

Steinmeier said that Russia had paid its price for Ukraine’s crisis by lost confidence and the falling ruble against the background of plummeting prices of energy resources.

‘It is not in our interests so that the situation could come totally out of control,” he said adding that “we should consider it in our policy of sanctions.”

“Those who want Russia to kneel down by undermining its economy are seriously mistaken if they think that it will bolster security in Europe,” Steinmeier said. “I can only warn against it.”

“Thus, I stand against further spiraling of sanctions,” he said.