Friday, March 29

Comment by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, M.V. Zakharova, in connection with the decision of the European Union to expand anti-Russian restrictive measures

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On December 16, as part of the sanctions aggression unleashed against Russia, the EU Council adopted another “package” of illegitimate unilateral restrictive measures against our country. This decision does not bring anything fundamentally new to relations with the European Union.

The EU leaders are unable to get out of the vicious circle of restrictions and recognize the futility of all anti-Russian sanctions and the policy of pressure on Russia. The current “package” will have the same effect as all the previous ones – aggravation of socio-economic problems in the European Union itself. Due to the ill-considered steps of Brussels, EU citizens have already faced energy shortages and unprecedented “sanctions inflation”, and a real threat of deindustrialization looms over the EU economy. The painful consequences of the anti-Russian policy for the EU will increase, including not without the “assistance” of the United States, acting as the main beneficiary of the security crisis on the European continent and the rupture of trade and economic ties between the European Union and Russia.

The European Union’s obsession with anti-Russian sanctions has caused and is causing significant damage to developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, which cannot compete with Western countries in the struggle for resources.

As for the bans imposed on the broadcast of four more Russian media outlets on the territory of EU member states, such authoritarian measures, unfortunately, have become “common practice” for Brussels. They are another evidence of the EU’s desire to rigidly censor information flows, up to the prohibition of objectionable media, contrary to the principles of freedom of speech and media declared by it in relation to third countries. The current decision further infringes on the right of EU residents to access information.

We drew attention to the provisions of the new “package” of sanctions, which provide for the possibility of granting individual exceptions from the sanctions regime by EU member states in the interests of a number of Russian exporters of food and fertilizers. This step is, in fact, the recognition by the European Union of the obvious – its restrictive measures have been undermining world food security for a long time, since they are directed against the Russian agro-industrial complex and create significant obstacles to the continuation of exports of our agricultural products to third countries. If Brussels is serious about food security issues, such steps should not be cosmetic, but comprehensive, and provide for the legal withdrawal from the sanctions package of all restrictive measures that directly or indirectly affect the supply of grain, fertilizers and raw materials for their production.

 

A source: https://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1844206/

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