EU prolongs Russian economic sanctions for six months

NATO head Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the EU decision, stressing how important it was that Russia face the consequences of its actions.

“Sanctions are a strong signal and clear message that it has consequences when a country behaves like Russia has in Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.

Russia meanwhile expressed disappointment, blaming partisan EU groups for the decision.

“We are deeply disappointed that the opinion of the Russophobic lobby, which pushed through the decision to prolong illegal restrictions, once again dominated in the EU,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The decision was “guaranteed to cause hundreds of thousands of Europeans to lose their jobs,” it said, focusing on a sore point in the bloc.

It also described as “cynical” the fact that the decision was taken on June 22 — the same day that Nazi Germany launched its devastating invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

The EU announced Friday that it had separately prolonged until June 2016 sanctions imposed to punish Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.

The European Council, comprised of the bloc’s political leaders, said it continued to “condemn the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation and remains committed to fully implement its non-recognition policy.”

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 following the ouster of pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev, saying the peninsula had voted overwhelming in favour of returning to its Russian homeland.

The Crimea sanctions include bans on cruise ships using ports there and restrictions on exports of telecommunications and transport equipment, in addition to visa bans and asset freezes against figures said to have helped the Russian annexation.

The Ukraine crisis has plunged EU and US ties with Russia into the deep freeze, with some exchanges reminiscent of Cold War tensions.