European Union (EU) countries, who support sanctions against Russia, have postponed discussions about their demands until the EU leaders summit in December. This was reported by the Financial Times, citing sources in Brussels.

In addition, and despite signs of some bloc countries softening their attitudes, the EU intends to extend sanctions against Russia for another six months.

The newspaper reports that diplomats fear that this extension may, over the next two weeks, trigger disputes between countries such as Hungary, Greece and Italy. These countries would like to review the sanctions, while Poland and the Baltic states have insisted on the extension of these restrictive measures against Moscow.

However, the most “peaceful” EU countries have decided to postpone discussions on this issue until the summit in December. According to a senior diplomat involved in the negotiations of the restrictions, some EU members are considering “sending a political signal” to Moscow that the sanctions policy is approaching a “tipping point”.

“Sooner or later we will need to have a deep and detailed discussion about the sanctions against Russia. I expect that December is the best time to do so,” another source said.

According to the report, countries have agreed to the “automatic renewal” of the sanctions partly due to the expectation that “this will be the last time that we extend the sanctions, or at least the last time that we fully extend them”.

  Russia, EU, Sanctions

Comments