BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — On Monday, the European Union extended the economic sanctions against Russia for another six months until July 31, 2016.
"What impact will it have? I would say that every new prolongation has a smaller economic impact, as our economy is adapting to [the sanctions]," Vladimir Chizhov told Russian reporters.
According to Chizhov, Russia-EU commodity turnover decreased at about 30 percent in the first nine months of 2015.
"I believe, the falling oil prices had a bigger impact on our trade and not only with the EU states," Chizhov stressed.
Relations between Russia and the European Union deteriorated in 2014 over Crimea's reunification with Russia and Moscow's alleged involvement into the escalation of the crisis in eastern Ukraine. The West imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia's energy, banking and defense industries.
