The European Union prolonged a sanctions package over Russia’s annexation of Crimea until 2016. Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014, saying the peninsula had voted overwhelming in favor of returning to its Russian homeland. 
In response, the EU imposed asset freezes and visa bans against pro-Moscow leaders and Russian figures. As the Ukraine crisis deepened, the bloc widened the sanctions list over Crimea, at the same time as imposing economic sanctions against Russia, to ban imports from and investment in the peninsula. The decision covered the sanctions agreed in June 2014 which also included bans on cruise ships using Crimean ports and restrictions on exports of telecommunications and transport equipment.
These sanctions will now run until June 2016, taking them past the economic measures targeting Russia’s banks, oil and defense sectors which the EU agreed earlier to extend for another six months to January 2016.