PRAGUE (Sputnik) — The European Union sometimes acts as a "helpless pawn" of the United States in the issues of anti-Russia sanctions introduced back in 2014, Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico said Sunday.
"It is interesting to see how the dynamics of sanctions against Russia will evolve, because we [the European Union] act as a helpless pawn of the United States in some issues. I think that previously we followed more what the United States had said rather than what we actually wanted in the European Union," Fico said, as quoted by the Teraz news outlet.
As soon as the United States will lift the sanctions against Russia, the European Union will be likely to do the same, Fico added.
"Every country has the right to choose the method of how to run its internal affairs," Fico said, adding that the United States and the European Union should stop to eliminate the government regimes all over the world in order to export their models of national development, according to the news outlet.
Since 2014, relations between Russia and the European Union and the United States, deteriorated amid the crisis in Ukraine. Brussels, Washington and their allies introduced several rounds of sanctions against Russia on the pretext of its alleged involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, which Moscow has repeatedly denied. In response to the restrictive measures, Russia has imposed a food embargo on some products originating in countries that have targeted it with sanctions.
The latest round of sanctions was introduced at the end of December as retaliation for Russia's alleged meddling in the US presidential election, a claim that Moscow has also repeatedly denied.
