If the situation in the east of Ukraine doesn't stabilize after the presidential elections, the EU may adopt new sanctions against Russia, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has said.
“We attach great importance to the May 25 elections and therefore any
attempts to hinder the elections, to call them illegitimate, will be
regarded as an attempt to disrupt them,” Bildt said at a press
conference in Kyiv on May 16.
According to him, the EU ministers will meet on Monday and unless the
situation stabilizes, they will decide on new sanctions against the
Russian Federation. They will include sanctions against the Russian
economy and against Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bildt said, adding
that there will be an unprecedented huge outflow of capital.
Moreover, the sanctions will harm the investment climate so that
investments will not be likely to stay in Russia, he added. The Swedish
prime minister said that they did not want to make it worse for the
people of Russia, but that they believed that Putin’s policy threatened
the future of the Russian population as well.
Therefore, the elections in Ukraine will be a decisive moment, he said.
