Bundestag deputies from various factions are calling for a gradual easing of EU sanctions against Russia, Deutsche Welle reports.
Germany and the Russian Federation economically suffer from them the most.
According to expert of the Social Democrats faction for economic policy, Bernd Westphal, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel “should include this topic on the EU agenda”.
“We will take the first step and see what Russia will do”, – Westphal said.
Christian Razauer, MP from the Christian Social Union, and Klaus Ernst of the Left Party, chairman of the Bundestag committee on economics and energy, insisted on the gradual lifting of sanctions. Sandra Wieser, an economic expert at the Free Democratic Party, also spoke in favor of easing restrictive measures, but emphasized that Russia should make progress in implementing the Minsk agreements to resolve the military conflict in eastern Ukraine.
In June 2019, the EU extended the sanctions imposed against Moscow due to the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and Russia’s support for the separatists in the Donbass.
According to Julian Khintz of the Kiel Institute for World Economy (IfW), Russia and Germany bear the brunt of the EU and US sanctions policies. As a result, the Russian Federation is losing about $ 3.4 billion per month due to failed trading operations. In Germany, this figure is about 770 million euros. For comparison: US losses do not exceed $ 70 million, Hinz added.