EU Hopes To Avoid Broad Sanctions Against Russia – EU Mission to Moscow

MOSCOW, April 29 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova – The European Union’s executive body is preparing broad economic sanctions against Russia, but hopes it will not have to implement them, the head of the EU mission in Moscow Vygaudas Ušackas told RIA Novosti Tuesday.

The EU has said it has a three-stage sanctions process. The third stage, not yet reached, would be broad economic sanctions against entire sectors of the Russian economy.

“The preparative work is being done by the European commission on the possible decision for the third stage of restrictive measures which may evolve also some of the economic aspects of the relationship,” Ušackas said.

“I hope we will not have to decide upon them and we have to do our utmost to use that window which we have in front of us,” he said.

The EU announced targeted sanctions against 15 additional Russian and Ukrainian officials on this week, following a similar expansion of the United States' sanctions list on Monday.

“The sanctions are indeed considered to be a last resort measure to influence the decision making and the behavior of the partners concerned,” Ušackas told RIA Novosti.

“The fact that the EU is signing a new round of sanctions on such an important partner like Russia is a sign that things are not going well and that we respond to the lack of actions especially with respect towards escalation of the situation in Ukraine,” he added.

The head of the EU mission in Moscow also hoped that the new sanctions announced on Tuesday would urge Russia to do more to ease tensions in Ukraine and deliver on the commitments of the Geneva agreement.

“We know that Ukraine as a country itself is a mosaic of representation of different political forces,” he added. “What matters is that we, as responsible global players, the Russian Federation, European Union and the United States, do our utmost to deliver the commitments we made in Geneva, and I want to reiterate that Geneva is only one platform we all four agreed upon so as to make very concrete and tangible steps to support stabilization and de-escalation of the situation in Ukraine,” Ušackas said.

Top diplomats from Russia, EU, US and Ukraine’s interim government gathered in the Swiss city of Geneva on April 17 and agreed on a framework to deescalate the crisis in Ukraine, calling on the sides in the standoff to refrain from violence.