Russia’s upper house speaker upbeat on Merkel statement on no further EU sanctions

The speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, said on Wednesday that the German leader’s statement that EU sanctions against Russia are unplanned is a “positive signal.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that the European Union will not impose further economic sanctions on Russia, although sanctions lists could be expanded to add officials of the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine following the November 2 vote which Moscow said it “respects.”

Valentina Matviyenko stressed that “it is high time to stop and evade confrontation, it is time to stop attempts to isolate Russia — this is senseless and gives no result or effect and only deepens the tensions.”

Both Russia and the European Union should instead focus their efforts on the fight against serious threats and challenges which are growing in the modern world, she said.

“No country is able to cope with them alone, and these are more appreciated values than exchanges of pricks and threats, information blackmail or sanctions,” Matviyenko said.

Matviyenko expressed hope that the current sanctions against Russia will be lifted and a normal and real dialogue will be established taking into account mutual interests.

In comments to Merkel’s statement, Matviyenko also said the West now understands that “sanctions are counterproductive and cannot change Russia’s principal stance and its independent principal foreign policy.”

Matviyenko said the West’s sanctions against Russia have no relation to the events in Ukraine and around Ukraine. “This is an internal Ukrainian crisis and it must be resolved by Ukraine itself without involving outer regional forces.”

The European Union and the United States imposed the latest batch of sectoral sanctions against Russia in mid-September despite the deal on a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, signed in the Belarusian capital Minsk.

Russia’s EU envoy Vladimir Chizhov told TASS Tuesday that the sanctions, which could be discussed at the EU ministerial meeting on November 17, are ineffective and far-fetched and the bloc has nearly exhausted its sanctions potential.