EU extends Russian sanctions
Penalties go till July; future hazy as some members grumble
BRUSSELS — The European Union on Monday extended sanctions against Russia for six months, achieving unity among 28 member nations despite rising divisions over how long to press a major trading partner on its annexation of Crimea and fueling of a separatist war in Ukraine.
The decision, given preliminary approval by EU leaders last week and due to go into effect today, lengthens until next year a laundry list of economic measures against Russia. In tandem with U.S. sanctions, the effort has contributed to a painful economic slowdown in Russia that will continue next year.
But amid growing grumbling from some European countries about the sanctions, their future beyond this renewal remains unclear.
The decision to extend the sanctions comes at the end of a difficult year for the European Union, which has faced triple crises with multiple terrorist attacks in Paris, the near exit of Greece from the euro zone in July and the refugee influx that is forcing nations to make difficult choices about their values. None of the problems seems likely to abate next year, leaving open the question whether Europe- an nations will continue to be able to hold together on the sanctions.
The sanctions were imposed after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014. They were strengthened after separatists in eastern Ukraine, backed by Russian firepower, downed Malaysia Airlines flight 17 in July 2014 as it was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people onboard. The United States and European Union have linked any rollback of the sanctions to the implementation of a peace plan reached in Minsk, Belarus, that would hand full control of Ukraine’s border with Russia back to Kiev, a step that has not been taken.
“Since the Minsk agreements will not be fully implemented by 31 December 2015, the duration of the sanctions has been prolonged whilst the Council continues its assessment of progress in implementation,” the European Council announced in a statement on Monday.
The sanctions will now extend until the end of July 2016.
But there has been growing fatigue for the sanctions among countries including Italy and France, which have long-standing trade ties to Russia in the energy sector. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi last week delayed the extension of the sanctions until he could confront German Chancellor Angela Merkel about what he sees as a double standard within Europe. Germany and Russia this year announced plans to build a new natural gas pipeline between them through the Baltic Sea, bypassing eastern Europe.
Renzi has complained that Merkel has forced other nations to agree to the sanctions while engaging in its own projects that contravene the spirit of the effort if not the letter of law. Italy in particular is bitter that the new German-Russian project, known as Nord Stream-2, comes after the cancellation of a different pipeline project, South Stream, that would have been constructed in partnership with Italy’s Eni energy company. Bulgaria, another country that was poised to gain from the South Stream project, has also complained about the sanctions.
“I have some different ideas with Angela about a lot of dossiers. First about Nord Stream. Because I think it’s incredible to stop South Stream just one year ago and then accept the Nord Stream,” Renzi said after meeting with EU leaders at the end of last week. He said that “for the first time,” Germany was not in a majority on the issue in the closed-door meetings.
Merkel has tried to downplay the differences, as well as the political implications of the German-Russian energy project.
“This is first and foremost a business proposition,” Merkel said of Nord Stream-2, speaking to reporters after the EU meetings. “Italy would have loved to participate in South Stream, which is very clear. Bulgaria also raised its voice today.”
Battered by an influx of refugees from the conflict in Syria, European leaders have sought to take Russia as a partner in the effort to stop the war there after it began bombing rebel and Islamic State positions in September. Some leaders have sought to link progress in Syria with a rollback of the sanctions over Ukraine, diplomats say, an effort strenuously opposed by the U.S.
The sanctions have drawn complaints from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who on Sunday said that Europe was simply acting as an extra arm of the U.S.
Europe “does not pursue an independent foreign policy at all. It has essentially abandoned it,” Putin said in a documentary broadcast Sunday on Russia’s state-run Rossiya-1 channel.