EU Continues Hurting Its Own Economy By Sanctioning Russia - Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th December, 2019) The European Union shoots its own economy in the foot by extending sanctions against Russia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Friday.

"The EU continues harming its own economy," Grushko told journalists.

Earlier in the day, European Council President Charles Michel said that the bloc decided to prolong economic sanctions against Moscow for six more months. He also stressed the need to implement the Minsk agreements on settling the conflict in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas.

The EU imposed economic sanctions on Russia after what it considered to be Moscow's interference in Ukraine's domestic affairs. Crimea, a peninsula that Russia gave to Ukraine under Soviet rule, held a referendum in 2014 and voted by 97 percent to rejoin Russia. Russia has repeatedly stated that the referendum was conducted in compliance with international law, but Ukraine never recognized its legitimacy.�