Kazakhstan President Calls on EU to Lift Economic Sanctions Against Russia

ASTANA (Sputnik) — "Europe should not continue to maintain the sanctions regime against Russia. These sanctions were ineffectual in political terms," Nazarbayev said in an interview with the French Figaro newspaper as quoted by the presidential Central Communications Service.

According to Nazarbayev, sanction effects have hit primarily ordinary people who have nothing to do with the Ukrainian conflict, including European citizens, including French farmers.

Relations between Russia and the European Union went downhill in 2014, when Brussels joined Washington in accusing Moscow of fueling the Ukrainian crisis and imposed economic sanctions as a punitive measure.

Russian authorities have refuted the accusations, observing that Western sanctions are counterproductive. In response to the Western restrictive measures, Russia announced in August 2014 a one-year food embargo on products originating in states that imposed sanctions. The ban has since been extended for another year.

On Saturday, President of the World Farmers Organization (WFO) Evelyn Nguleka told Sputnik that the European agricultural sector continues to struggle with economic losses due to Russia’s embargo on EU food imports as the average agricultural income in EU member states hit by the Russian embargo dropped by up to 20 percent.