The political system of the European Union can no longer imagine itself without the extension of anti-Russian sanctions, bringing the situation to the point of absurdity for its own economy and EU member states.
At the same time, Russia has learned not only to withstand such pressures, but also to stimulate its own growth.
Russia's permanent representative to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, stated this at a press conference via video link from Brussels, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“To what extent is this (the extension of anti-Russian sanctions - ed.) immediately after the Normandy format held in Paris, and now after the agreements reached on one of the irritants - on gas transit through Ukraine? Everyone is free to judge how logical the EU line is.
Let me remind you that when sanctions were first introduced against Russia at the beginning of 2014, the motivation was simple: the purpose of these restrictions was for everyone involved in the Ukrainian crisis to sit down at the negotiating table.
February 2015 came, all those involved sat down at the negotiating table in Minsk, and, after lengthy discussions, reached the Minsk agreements.
What should the EU have done? Naturally, these sanctions should be lifted immediately. The EU did the opposite: a couple of days later it introduced additional ones,” the diplomat said.
“But the Russian economy withstood these sanctions, in some sectors it even stimulated fairly high growth rates, for example, in agriculture.
In any case, today this is the problem of the European Union - how to get out of the dead end into which it has brought itself. Now, when he finds this path, he will know where to find us,” Chizhov added.