Dmitry Rogozin also said that no blackmailing or threats can be used
against Russia.
MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. The anti-Russian sanctions have had an opposite effect to the one the European Union had wanted them to make, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Sunday.
Earlier in
the day, Bloomberg said citing sources in Brussels that in mid-March the
European Union plans to extend the sanctions against 100 Russian and Ukrainian
nationals for another six months. Among those who may fall under the extended
sanctions, according to the agency, might be Arkady Rotenberg, a businessman
and co-owner of the Northern Sea Route bank, and Yuri Kovalchu, the biggest
stakeholder in the bank Rossiya.
"No
blackmailing or threats can be used against Russia. Sanctions against our
industry have already had an effect that is opposite to the one the European
Union bureaucrats had wanted," Rogozin wrote on his Twitter account.
Following
the developments in Ukraine in 2014 and Crimea’s reunification with Russia, the
European Union imposed sanctions on Russia and has numerously extended them
ever since. Talks on visa-free travel and on a new basic cooperation agreement
were suspended. A number of Russian officials were banned to enter the European
Union and their assets were frozen. Apart from that, the European Union imposed
trade, financial and defense-sector restriction. In all, more than 150
individuals and several dozens of legal entities have been blacklisted by the
European Union. Sectoral sanctions were imposed on a number of Russian
financial, oil producing and defense entities.
Source: ITAR-TASS 06-02-2017
