Brussels, Belgium. With Poroshenko on the way to the White House and Syria on fire from hostile US military action, the EU takes its next swing at Russia with more feel good-do nothing sanctions.
The EU on Monday extended for another year its trade sanctions on the Black Sea Republic of Crimea, integrated by Russia in 2014, and diplomats said they expected the bloc to do the same for its sanctions on Moscow soon.
Moscow’s integration of Crimea is not internationally recognised. Along with Moscow’s subsequent backing of Donbass freedom fighters in Ukraine’s industrial east, it has prompted the bloc to impose sanctions on the peninsula and on Moscow, in an organized conspiracy with the United States.
The sanctions include a ban on all imports from Crimea and exports to the peninsula that relate to transport, energy and telecoms. The sanctions also prohibit EU investment and the provision of tourism services there.
European Union sanctions on Moscow restrict the Russian banking sector’s access to international money markets and ban most arms trading with Russia, as well as the sale of some energy-related equipment and technology.
Italy, as well as Greece and Hungary, are among EU states demanding the sanctions on Russia be ended. They criticise sanctions as ineffective and causing harm to the European businesses as well.
In the USA, a strong Ukrainian lobby has paid millions of dollars to buy votes in the congress and senate to stop American President Trump from ending sanctions, as he promised during campaign 2016.