EU likely to roll over sanctions against Russia: WSJ

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Union is, in the coming weeks, looking to roll over its broad economic and targeted sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis until late January, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a number of senior officials and diplomats.

The continuation of the sanctions are part of an effort to maximize the bloc’s leverage in pushing the Kremlin to fully implement its side of the Minsk cease-fire agreement, the officials say.

The decisions are likely to deepen tensions with the Kremlin, which had appeared to be hoping to split the EU over sanctions policy and was hoping the relative quiet in eastern Ukraine since the ceasefire accord was signed on Feb 12 would encourage its friends in the bloc to at least lighten the measures.

While the plans aren’t finalized—some haven't even been formally discussed yet at EU level—the officials, according to the Journal, say there is growing confidence in Brussels that the bloc is united behind a policy which would ensure no weakening of EU pressure on Russia until Moscow has fully met its ceasefire commitments.

These include pulling troops out of Ukraine and handing back control to Kiev of the Ukrainian side of the border between the two countries.

After weeks of debate, EU leaders agreed at a March summit that any easing of the economic sanctions, which expire at the end of July, “should be clearly linked to the complete implementation of the Minsk agreements, bearing in mind that this is only foreseen by December 31, 2015.”

However some capitals had continued talking about allowing a modest relaxation of the economic measures if the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine largely holds.

The EU measures, approved last summer, included tight restrictions on financial, energy and defense links with Russia, as well as a ban on sales of products with dual military or civilian use. Washington imposed similar sanctions.

However officials said the debate over easing sanctions has largely evaporated.

“You don’t have that doubt any longer,” the Journal quoted one senior official as saying.

Under the current plans, the bloc would take a political decision at a summit on June 25-26 to extend the economic sanctions to the end of January, the officials said. That date hasn’t been nailed down yet. But several officials, quoted by the Journal, said it would give member states proper time to assess Russia’s Minsk compliance.

Russia has taken retaliatory measures against 89 prominent EU current and former officials, banning them from Russia. After repeated requests, it handed over a list of the people it was targeting to EU authorities last week.

Later this month, the EU is also widely expected to roll over for a year sanctions specifically targeted at Crimea and Russian firms and people doing business there.

A recently circulated EU paper on sanctions estimated Russia’s economy would shrink 3.8% this year, in part because of the bloc’s measures, according to several officials.

Russia’s retaliatory ban on EU agricultural exports was estimated to have cost the bloc around €5 billion since they were imposed last summer, the people said. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has admitted that western sanctions, along with the diving oil price, have hurt its economy.