The extension of EU sanctions against Russia is possible because it is a tool for influencing Moscow in regard to the situation in Ukraine, a European diplomatic source told Interfax on Sept. 4.
Responding to a question as to whether the reports on the possibility of European sanctions on Russia being extended and expanded are true, the source said they are true because the sanctions are a flexible instrument.
The source said it is an undesirable instrument and the EU has said this many times.
Some Russian media earlier reported that the EU and the U.S. are considering the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Russia if local elections in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics are not conducted simultaneously with the local elections in Ukraine.
Specifically, the paper Kommersant reported on Sept. 5, citing a Western diplomat, that if representatives of the DPR and the LPR continue insisting and hold elections in Donbas separately from the general Ukrainian elections, which will contradict Ukrainian laws, it will become a blow to the Minsk agreements.
