EU states agree to extend Russia sanctions

EU countries have agreed to extend the life of Russia and Crimea sanctions, despite Kremlin diplomacy.

They took the decision by consensus at a meeting of ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday (17 June).

It is to be rubber stamped, with no political debate, by EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday.

One or other minister could, in theory, call for a discussion and block the move.

Normally, it never happens.

But the abnormal and volatile nature of the Greek bailout negotiations adds an element of uncertainty.

Tsipras

The Greek PM, Alexis Tsipras i, is to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin i at a business forum in St. Petersburg on Friday.

Tsipras has, in the past, criticised the EU sanctions regime, while Russia has said it might dip into its $350 billion reserve fund if Greece requests help.

The timing of Friday’s meeting has given EU and US diplomats sleepless nights on whether Tsipras will threaten to sell his EU veto in order to gain leverage in the bailout talks.

But one EU source said Tsipras has given EU Council president Donald Tusk i a face-to-face pledge that he won’t.

Another source said Greece, and other sanctions critics, such as the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia, didn’t put up a fight at the ambassadors’ meeting on Wednesday.

A third source said EU states want to get the sanctions out of the way so that leaders can devote time to Greece and to the migrant crisis at next week’s summit.

“We don’t want the summit to be dominated by a debate on Russia”, he told EUobserver.

“It’s also a good idea to take the sanctions decision at a low, technical level in order to minimise the political reaction by Russia”.

Extension

The economic sanctions are to be extended from their expiry date, in July, until the end of the year.

They were adopted last July after flight MH17 was shot down over the conflict zone in east Ukraine and after the regular Russian army crossed the border.

They ban Russian banks, arms firms, and energy firms from buying long-term debt on international markets.

They also ban Russian arms and energy firms from buying high-end technology.

The Crimea sanctions, which ban almost all forms of business activity, are to be extended by one year.

The EU ambassadors, on Tuesday, also got a first look at the EU foreign service’s “action plan” on how to counter Russian propaganda.

Putin

For his part, Putin has tried to target potential EU veto-wielders.

He met with Finnish president Sauli Niinisto in Moscow this week and with Italian leader Matteo Renzi in Milan last week.

He also met the Czech and Slovak heads in Moscow in May and the Cypriot and Hungarian heads in February.

None of the meetings yielded a sign that they would break EU solidarity on Ukraine, however.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s distribution, last month, of a visa-ban list of 89 EU officials and politicians soured relations.

An EU diplomat told this website the real list is believed to be much longer.

“It could be in the hundreds or even the thousands. But they won’t reveal its full extent because they would lose the element of surprise, when an EU visitor lands in Moscow and gets turned back”, he said.