EU Ultimately Has To Admit Anti-Russia Sanctions Lacked Grounds - Russian Lawmaker

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th December, 2018) The European Union ultimately will have to admit that it fell short of grounds for the introduction of sanctions against Russia in the first place, chair of the Russian upper house Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev told Sputnik.

Earlier in the day, the bloc extended economic sanctions against Russia for another six months, according to European Council President Donald Tusk.

"It will go on forever - or until the European Union finds the courage to admit that the grounds for the sanctions were initially false, and their effectiveness ultimately tends to zero," Kosachev said.

At the same time, chairman of the Russian lower house's Committee on Financial Markets Anatoly Aksakov brushed off the extension of the sanctions.

"We have already forgotten about all these decisions, we do not pay attention to them. And we believe that this is such a formality that does not particularly interest us," Aksakov told Sputnik.

Relations between Moscow and the West deteriorated in 2014 after Crimea's reunification with Russia and amid the crisis in eastern Ukraine. The European Union and the United States imposed restrictive measures against Russian individuals, companies and economic sectors. Moscow has responded by imposing restrictions on food imports from the countries that supported the sanctions.