Reuters: Western leaders agreed to extend Russia sanctions by six months: diplomat
Western leaders who met on the margins of last week's Group of 20 summit in Turkey agreed to extend sanctions imposed on Russia for its intervention in Ukraine by six months until July of next year, a senior European diplomat told Reuters.
The decision was taken despite mounting calls to cooperate more closely with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the fight against Islamic State following the militant group's Nov. 13 attacks in Paris which killed 130 people.
U.S. President Barack Obama, Germany's Angela Merkel, Britain's David Cameron, Italy's Matteo Renzi and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who represented President Francois Hollande at the summit, attended the brief meeting near the conclusion of the G20 meeting in Antalya.
Update: Sanctions fail to stem access to finance for Russian corporates (Reuters).
WNU Editor: This is probably the wrong message to send if countries like France want to work with Russia in the fight against the Islamic State. But I also suspect that European governments are divided on the issue of Russian sanctions, and these differences will become more apparent as time passes by. I know in Russia there is an obvious desire to see sanctions removed, but the big economic issue is not sanctions but the drop in the price of oil. Lower oil prices have severely impacted the Russian government's finances, and they are facing some hard decisions on how to manage this.
3 comments:
Keep the sanctions on Russia but do nothing to stop the flow of funds for ISIS. The US is like a dog with a bone and won't or can't let go. No for such and expensive bone I guess.
I was thinking the same. Sanction Russia but no moves against the Saudis, Turks and others. Totally ridiculous, hypocritical, infantile and transparent.
Agreed tussia needs to be commended and rewarded for its efforts.
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