PARIS, September 1 (RIA Novosti) – EU sanctions against Russia are unfair and unproductive, according to Thierry Mariani, member of the National Assembly of France.
“I, and many of the other participants of today’s meeting, think that the sanctions imposed against Russia are unfair, unconstructive and unproductive,” Mariani said during a meeting between Sergei Naryshkin, Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament) Speaker, with French political and social activists in Paris Monday.
Over the past few months, the United States and the European Union introduced several rounds of targeted sanctions against the Russian economy, unjustifiably blaming Moscow for meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs.
As the Ukrainian crisis escalated, the United States pressed for its Western allies to follow its lead. Switzerland, Canada, Australia and Japan caved in to the US sanctions push and drew up their own blacklists.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that the sanctions will not only affect Russia, but will have a negative impact on the economies of the countries imposing them.
In August, Russia introduced protective measures banning the import of agricultural and food products from countries that had imposed sanctions on Russia for one year.
