US maintains Russia sanctions:

Washington will maintain economic sanctions against Russia over its support of armed separatists in eastern Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea and is hopeful that the European Union will do the same, a senior US official said Monday.

Daniel Fried, coordinator for sanctions policy at the State Department, said at a think tank event that the sanctions have been successful in tempering Russia’s support for the rebels and engaging Moscow in a Western-mediated peace process with Kiev.

Sanctions might well have acted as a deterrent and “prevented things from being much, much worse,” Fried said,