EU extends economic sanctions against Russia by six months

(File photo)

BRUSSELS, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) decided on Wednesday to prolong economic sanctions against Russia by six month until Jan. 31, 2018, saying Minsk agreements have still not been fully implemented.

This decision follows an update from French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the summit meeting of the EU leaders on June 22 on the implementation of the Minsk Agreements.

The economic sanctions include limiting access to EU primary and secondary capital markets for some major Russian majority state-owned companies, and imposing an export and import ban on trade in arms.

The EU also extended sanctions of an export ban for dual-use goods for military use or military end users in Russia, and curtailed Russian access to certain sensitive technologies and services that can be used for oil production and exploration.

The EU's move has "no meaning and no future", Senior Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs told Sputnik.

"Mistakes of the past are being printed out as though on a conveyor belt, mistakes that have no future," Kosachev said.

The sanctions measures against Russia, due to expire on July 31, were originally introduced in 2014, targeting the financial, energy and defense sectors, and the area of dual-use goods.