Ambassador of Belgium called conditions for the lifting of sanctions against Russia

In Belgium, we would like to see no sanctions against Russia, but this requires a number of agreements, including on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine, the Belgian Ambassador Jean-Arthur Regimo said, Izvestia reports.

"Of course, we would rather prefer that there should be no sanctions. However, in order to abolish them, political agreements must be reached with Russia, "he said. The ambassador noted that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium visited Moscow to conduct negotiations in this direction. According to him, the issue of Ukraine is the first and the main thing for solving the "sanction problem".

The diplomat added that he did not know the exact amount of losses that Belgium incurred from the EU's introduction of sanctions against Russia. "When the EU introduced sanctions for the first time, we decided for ourselves: the damage that we do to ourselves and in which we are aware should be fairly distributed among all the countries of the European Union," Jean-Arthur Regimo stressed.

Earlier, the European Union extended the sanctions against Russia until January 31, 2019. Restrictions concern the energy and financial sectors of the Russian economy, as well as the defense industry and the production of dual-use goods.

These sanctions were introduced in 2014 after the Crimea joined Russia on the basis of a referendum. Ukraine refused to recognize this step and calls the peninsula its "illegally occupied territory."