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EU widens sanctions a notch to raise pressure on Russia over Ukraine

13 May 2014 03:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The European Union took a cautious step to expand sanctions against Russia on Monday, targeting two Crimean companies and 13 people in response to Moscow's annexation of the Ukrainian region and its support for Russian-speaking separatists,APA reports quoting Reuters.

It was the first time the EU's 28 governments had taken aim at corporations rather than individuals, but the measures still fall far short of Washington's sanctions.

"We have decided to adopt a new list of people subject to sanctions as well as entities that have benefited from the illegal annexation of Crimea," French European Affairs Minister Harlem Desir told reporters.

The EU was due to publish the names of the new sanctions targets later on Monday, as the decision entered into force.

Rustam Temirgaliyev, Crimea's deputy prime minister who was put on the EU sanctions list days before Russia annexed Crimea in March, called the EU sanctions unjust and urged the bloc to rethink its approach.

"In a democratic way, without violence, we held a referendum and Russia took us in. Why are they imposing sanctions on us for this?," he said.

The EU's reticence to go further and impose tough economic sanctions on Russia over its support for pro-Russian groups in Ukraine reflects concerns among many of its member states about trade and industrial ties and heavy reliance on Russian energy.

Underlying such concerns, diplomatic sources said France planned to press ahead with a 1.2 billion euro ($1.66 billion) contract to sell Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia because scrapping it would do more damage to France than to Russia.

The ministers meeting in Brussels did, however, discuss possible triggers for tougher sanctions, with big EU powers Germany, France and Britain all suggesting that Russia must be punished if it undermined Ukraine's presidential election on May 25.

A joint statement after the meeting said the EU would "pay particular attention to all parties' attitude and behavior towards the holding of free and fair presidential elections when deciding about possible future measures".

The ministers also met Didier Burkhalter, head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who has drawn up a peace plan for Ukraine.

Burkhalter said it was important that a "round table" of Ukrainian politicians and civil groups to try to end the conflict started as soon as possible and he was conciliatory towards Russia.

"We have seen in Moscow that there is an openness for dialogue," he told reporters.