EU extended sanctions against Russia until July 31

The Council of the European Union extended sector sanctions against Russia for another six months - until July 31, 2017. This was reported on the website of the European structure.

As noted in the message, the condition for lifting sanctions is Russia to fulfill all the Minsk agreements. It was assumed that the process will be completed by December 31, 2015. However, since this did not happen, the sanctions have to renew for six months for the third time.

The fact that the EU members agreed to the extension of sanctions on December 15 were told by Lithuania President Dalya Grybauskaite . “All member countries understand that this is inevitable,” said the Lithuanian leader.

In another Russian Foreign Ministry called the extension of sanctions by a demonstration of EU weakness . As stated on Smolenskaya Square, "obvious" that "the conjunction of restrictions with the implementation of Moscow Minsk agreements is absurd."