"We are sure that individually, many MPs are favorable to the suppression of the sanctions but they follow their party rules on it… And their parties or the government are not strongly against Russia but they follow the fray in the European Union and NATO… Difficult to find courageous politicians anywhere in Europe," Luc Rivet said.
According to him, recent statements by some NATO member-countries about the possibility of a Russian attack coupled with the recent NATO military reinforcement in Poland and the Baltic states further complicated things.
"The stupid warmongering of NATO about the ludicrous idea of a possible attack by Russia on the Baltic states makes it even more difficult for them [lawmakers] to express their real opinion," Lut Rivet claimed.
In 2014, the European Union imposed sanctions against Russian businesses and individuals amid disagreements over the crisis in Ukraine, while Russia banned EU food imports as a reciprocal measure.
Late last year, the Russian Economic Development Ministry said the country's losses from the sanctions were estimated to equal about $20-25 billion, while the European Union’s losses from the Russian food embargo were estimated at about $100 billion.