Leonid Slutsky, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs:
“There are leaks from Brussels to the media about the decision of the EU permanent representatives to extend anti-Russian sanctions for the Crimea for another year. If so, then this is a movement in a completely opposite direction from common sense.
The extension of sanctions will not be able to influence the situation around the reunification of the Crimea with Russia. The peninsula more than 5 years ago returned to his native harbor, in the Russian Federation. This decision is final, the question is closed. And Europe will have to realize and accept this reality sooner or later.
Games in the sanctions imposed on Brussels from Washington, not least go to the detriment of our European partners. The economic damage of the EU countries, according to a number of experts, is measured already under a hundred billion euros. All these restrictive measures are boomerang, first of all, by those who enter them. The EU is time to pursue an independent policy in the interests of the states of Greater Europe, and not to dance under the American sanctions tune. ”
