EU Summit refuses to adopt "Syria sanctions" against Russia
October 21, 2016 - Fort Russ News -
RusVesna, RIA Novosti - translated by J. Arnoldski -



As a result of the summit of 28 EU leaders on Thursday and Friday in Brussels, the EU did not adopt new sanctions against Russia over Syria. This is indicated by the summit’s final communique.

However, the adopted document did say that “The European Council condemns the Syrian regime and its allies, including Russia’s attack on civilians in Aleppo.”

Western countries continue to blame Moscow and Damascus for bombardments on civilians and the armed opposition. Syria and Russia insist that strikes are only made against terrorists, and blame the US for being incapable of influencing the so-called “moderate opposition” to disassociate from radicals.

After the summit, Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern stated that not a single EU member country demanded that sanctions be imposed against Russia over Syria.

The Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, earlier reported that the Kremlin would wait to comment on the possible introduction of sanctions by the EU against Russia over Syria until the final resolution of the European leaders’ summit was adopted.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that no concrete problems are solved by sanctions against Russia over Ukraine or Syria, but are merely a policy of containment against Russia to hinder its development.

Russia has repeatedly stated that it wants to develop partnership with the EU, but is compelled to react to unfriendly moves, such as the EU’s imposition of sanctions against Moscow after Crimea’s reunification with Russia and events in Ukraine.