News / Interviews

EU decision on Russia sanctions total folly: Analyst

Wednesday, 22 June 2016 6:18 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 22 June 2016 9:50 AM ]

EU flags fly at half-mast at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels on March 23, 2016. (AFP photo)

EU's decision to extend sanctions on Russia is "total folly,” an American expert says, adding the measure is not in the interests of Europe.

Ambassadors from the 28 member states agreed unanimously on Tuesday to prolong the sanctions by six months.

William Jones, a member of the Executive Intelligence Review in Washington, told Press TV that sanctions on Russia are losing their “momentum,” and that unity in the EU against Moscow is “disintegrating.”

“There is tremendous division within Europe. A lot of Europeans have realized that the military and the economic policy that Europe and the United States has towards Russia, is putting us on a hair-trigger toward war and they would like that to be changed,” he said.

The analyst went on to say that Europe is getting tired of trying to be “the boat that is following the US in their campaign against Russia.”

Jones said President Vladimir Putin’s measures to defend Russia's integrity and sovereignty in response to NATO’s military buildup on East European borders are “absolutely lawful.”

Putin is very strong and is not in a position to “buckle” under any pressure on the basis of these sanctions, Jones added.

US foreign policy and national security analyst in Atlanta Lawrence J. Korb, however, said the sanctions have had an impact on Russia’s economy and led to a slump.

The sanctions, he said, are a much better way to deal with the situation rather than actually having an armed confrontation.

“The message to the Russians basically is if you keep up this behavior by violating the Minsk agreement which you made back in 1994 to stay out of Ukraine, you are going to pay a price,” he told Press TV.

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