Russia Vows Response to EU Sanctions Extension

Russia has denounced the European Union's move to maintain sanctions against Moscow over its role in the Ukraine conflict, calling Thursday's decision to extend the measures "destructive."

Speaking to reporters Friday in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to specify how Russia would respond, but said it would "do what is in its national interests in terms of retaliatory steps."

He said that Russia would “prefer to engage in creative matters, not destructive matters such as sanctions rhetoric.”

Peskov also accused Kyiv of violating the terms of the cease-fire agreement for eastern Ukraine, signed in Minsk, Belarus, last month.

European Union leaders, meeting in Brussels, said Thursday they would not lift economic sanctions against Russia until the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, which Moscow endorsed, is fully implemented.

EU President Donald Tusk said the decision showed the 28-nation EU intends to continue pressing Moscow to stop supporting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has claimed more than 6,000 lives since the conflict began last April.............http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-vows-response-to-eu-sanctions-extension/2688479.html
20/3/15
--
-
Related:

• Ungarn, Griechenland, Italien, Österreich, Spanien, Zypern und die Slowakei sind gegen die Politik von systematischen Sanktionen gegen Russland im Ukraine-Konflikt. Von RIA Novosti befragte Experten erklären die Positionen ihrer Länder.

• Ukraine warns EU to avoid sanctions split. Vladimir Putin to exploit their differences (Arseniy Yatsenyuk)

----

• Sanctions not to affect Russia’s foreign policy (Dmitry Peskov)

• Moscow Vows to Respond to ’Inconsistent’ EU Sanctions

• Kremlin: Russia will consider national interests to decide on counter-sanctions...