Italy was accused of blocking anti -Russian sanctions

European diplomats suspected Italy in the reluctance to punish the Kremlin: the EU believes that it is Italy that prevents the Commonwealth from taking new, more stringent sanctions against Russia, writes Financial Times .

On June 30, the deadline has expired, given by the European Union to take measures to de -escalate the situation in Ukraine. In case of inaction, Europe threatened Russia with a package of economic sanctions, but they were never introduced. According to diplomats from countries ready to punish Moscow, this happened due to the fault of Italy, which has been presiding in the European Union since July.

“From the first day it was clear that [Italians] would take an extreme position,” FT quotes his sources.

The reason for this position is the close business ties of Rome and Moscow: Italy is the second most important Russian trading partner in Europe after Germany. This partnership brought the Italian economy $ 30 billion in 2013.

At the same time, Italian officials deny the Prochrevsky position of Rome. One of the Italian officials said that last Friday the country's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi “talked on this topic” with an angel Merkel and assured her that the position of Italy completely coincides with the German and French.

“After a three -hour discussion, we unanimously - I emphasize this - agreed to add 11 names to the sanctions list,” the Italian ambassador added to the EU.

The European Union published the names of the new defendants in its sanctions list on Saturday July 12. There are no Russian officials, politicians or businessmen in the list : the leaders of the self -proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, as well as the Cossack chieftain Nikolai Kozitsyn, got into it.

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