The EU does not want to break the deadlock. Brussels extended economic sanctions against Russia once again for six months due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
This was agreed by the heads of state and government of the EU at a video conference on Friday. The reason for the extension of the sanctions was that insufficient progress was made in the implementation of the Minsk Agreement.
The EU imposed sanctions for the first time after a MH17 passenger plane was shot down over Ukraine in July 2014 (without providing any evidence of Russia’s liability). The boycott is aimed at Russian state-owned banks, arms import and export, and the oil and gas industry.
The EU has linked the lifting or easing of sanctions with the implementation of the Minsk Peace Agreements in Ukraine. As a result of the boycott, the EU harms not only Russia, but also European companies. Sanctions-related losses for European companies since 2014 are billions.
Economists from Kiel and Hong Kong calculated in 2019 that $ 4 billion in trade each month would be lost due to anti-Russian sanctions. Of these export losses, $ 1.8 billion or 45 percent are borne by authorizing countries, 55 percent by Russia.
The European Union (EU), in turn, suffers 92 percent of the damage done to authorizing countries. The lion’s share falls on Germany with 38 percent or 667 million dollars in trade losses per month.