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Alexander Romanovich: the western block has moved towards normalization of relations with our country in different directions so far 22 декабря 2015 Alexander Romanovich, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, a deputy of the State Duma faction of Party A JUST RUSSIA made comments on the EU decision to prolong the sanctions against Russia till 31 July 2016 Well, on 12 December this year, the European Union official courier published the decision taken by the European Union on prolongation till 31 July 2016 of the sectoral sanctions against the RF expiring on 31 January 2016. As far as one can understand from that official information, the sanctions remain without any changes. Moreover, according to the statements made in unison by the European officials from Brussels, their prolongation is of ‘a mere technical character’. I’ll permit myself to strongly disagree with those remarks which seem to be mild at first sight but which actually hide the truth that is rather harmful to the European politics. The EU countries are still following the policy of making pressure on Russia. They still link the sanctions to implementation of the Minsk agreements although we are by no means a party to the conflict. They do not react either to the huge losses from this sanction confrontation or to the general international climate which has visibly changed recently. According to the statistical service of the European Union itself (the Eurostat), the losses of the European countries from the sanctions against Russia and its countermeasures are totally estimated at € 8bn 650mln. The losses of Germany are estimated at €2 bln 566 mln, i.e. almost one third of this sum, Spain – €668 min, France – €612 mln. Even without taking into account possible conjuncture errors of the official European statistics and the enormous sums as such, everyone should realize first of all that there are sufferings of numerous farmers’ families that are behind those losses, forced material problems of the people who are often very far from politics. As we get to know from numerous news reports, these people even go on manifestations to protest against the sanctions and demand to lift them. Thank God, the number of reasonable Europeans calling for normalization of relations between the EU and Russia is steadily growing. We have become aware recently of the European Parliament decision to send a delegation to Moscow already early 2016 to revive inter-parliamentary contacts with the RF State Duma. Chairman of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and the leaders of the principal political groups of the assembly have spoken out in its favour. The faction of the European Socialists and Democrats has worked a lot for it as well. During a recent meeting in Berlin, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Alexey Pushkov and Vice-Chairman of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) faction in the European Parliament Knut Fleckenstein (FRG) made a joint call for a mutual lifting of the sanctions from the Russian and European parliamentarians. The third force that appeared not along ago in Spain – left party Podemos headed by Pablo Iglesias was rather successful at the elections recently held in Spain. It is important that the politician said not once that the European leaders were pursuing foreign politics (in particular, regarding Ukraine) "under the NATO dictation". Mr. Iglesias also condemns the EU behavior during the Euromaidan in Kiev and says the European Union also bears responsibility for the embargo Russia imposed on the European agricultural products. French republican party deputy Thierry Mariani is known to have represented the resolution about lifting the anti-Russian sanctions in the French parliament. He also plans to discuss it at the National Assembly in January. According to the resolution, the anti-Russian sanctions conflict with the basic interests of the France-Russia relations, are absolutely inefficient and, to a greater extent, illegal from the point of view of international law and harm the interests of France. However, being separated and fragmentary at the moment, all these positive constituents of the European politics are, to our regret, unable to resist the line of Russophobia officially promoted by the European Union not without the USA pressure. This seems strange in particular against the background of acknowledgement by some EU leaders and Washington of the significant practical role of Russia in the settlement of the Syrian issue. That’s why the movement of the western block towards normalization of relations with our country has been rather strange so far, I’d even say this is the movement in different directions. Moreover, I regret to say the result is negative, it reminds me of a well-known formula: ‘one step forward, two steps backward".
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