The EU on Friday moved to extend economic sanctions against Russia for six more months for its annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in Ukraine, even as European leaders clashed on policy toward Russia with testy exchanges over a Russian gas pipeline project to Germany at the last scheduled summit meeting of a tumultuous year.
The ostensible unity of the decision to extend sanctions was diminished by disagreements among members over the gas pipeline project that added a sour coda to a year of crises — including terrorist attacks and a wave of hundreds of thousands of migrants — that has already badly tested the bloc.
At the center of the dispute were tensions between Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the pipeline project, Nord Stream 2, which would significantly increase the amount of Russian gas delivered to Germany and other parts of Europe while bypassing Ukraine.
Photo: Reuters
Ukraine has long earned important sums of money from transferring Russian gas west to European consumers and could face more serious budgetary problems without those revenues, even as it continues to struggle through a civil conflict in its east fueled by pro-Kremlin forces.
The tensions between the EU leaders exposed the difficult balancing act the bloc has played with the Kremlin as it tries to vie for Russia’s energy business and seek Moscow’s help in quelling the conflict in Syria, while also seeking to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin of Russia for his land grab in Crimea and meddling in eastern Ukraine.
Italy had this month delayed the sanctions decision, which must be unanimous, by insisting that more discussion was needed. The move to renew the sanctions on Friday had been expected because of a consensus that a tenuous peace accord, the so-called “Minsk Agreement,” reached earlier this year between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatist rebels, has not yet been fully carried out.
The ceasefire agreed in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, has mostly held since September, but the peace deal is unraveling on other points.
Ukraine has complained that it has still not regained control over its eastern border with Russia. Moscow, for its part, has accused the government in Kiev of failing to honor pledges to amend Ukraine’s constitution to recognize some local autonomy in the breakaway Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
At a news conference after the summit meeting, Renzi denied mounting an “attack” on Germany, but said the bloc’s economic powerhouse should not be regarded as a “lifesaver” that always acted entirely in the broader strategic interests of the EU.
Europe first imposed economic sanctions on Russia in July last year, after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, and strengthened them in September last year. They were renewed most recently in June.
The decision to continue the sanctions against Russia now needs approval by member nations by noon on Monday and should go into force shortly afterward.
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