Sanctions in Russia extended by 6 months

Author: Mario Schmidtgen
Date: 10.07.2018

Losses in the billions

Due to the lack of progress in the peace process, the economic sanctions against Russia for Ukraine are now being further extended, as Spiegel Online reports.

Lately, the sanctions were extended from winter 2017 to 31 July 2018 – despite billions in losses for domestic companies. Now the sanctions shall be extended until January 31, 2019. Already in the summer of 2016, it was decided to refute the trade and investment restrictions in case of fulfilled agreements of the Minsk Peace Plan on the Ukraine conflict. But this did not happen.

The intention of linking sanctions to the peace plan is as follows: The EU states want Russian President Vladimir Putin to use his relations to the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in order to bring about a settlement of the conflict.

According to diplomats, experts believe that the costs of sanctions in Russia are already in the hundreds of billions. The European economy is also not left out. The sanctions make it difficult for many EU companies to trade with Russia. In addition, Russia imposes import bans on Western agricultural products such as meat and fruits.

The reason for the penalties was the crashed Malaysian aircraft over eastern Ukraine on July 29, 2014, with 298 passengers on board. The crash was reputedly caused by Moscow-loyal separatists or even Russian forces. Although the aircraft is said to have been hit by a Russian-made Buk missile, Russia denies its fault.