The European Union has extended economic sanctions against Russian for a further six months, an EU official said. This follows the EU’s decision Friday to extend sanctions against Crimea for another year.
The decision to extend the sanctions against Russia was announced by the EU Council’s press officer for foreign affairs, Susanne Kiefer. The sanctions are being maintained until January 31, 2016 to ensure the Minsk agreement is implemented.
The European Union will review the sanctions regime against Russia in six or seven months, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters in Luxembourg.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered his chief of staff to ask President Putin for an extension of Russian counter-sanctions following the EU decision. The premier has also ordered the preparation of a decree listing all categories of products and types of transactions covered by the restrictive measures.
EU sanctions against Russia include restrictions on lending to major Russian state-owned banks, as well as defense and oil companies. In addition, Brussels imposed restrictions on the supply of weapons and military equipment to Russia as well as military technology, dual-use technologies, high-tech equipment and technologies for oil production.
The EU imposed sanctions against Russia on August 1, 2014, and tightened them in September the same year. In October, a separate decision by the EU Council loosened restrictions against European subsidiaries of Russian state banks. As a countermeasure, Russia introduced a food embargo against countries that supported the sanctions.