Road free for new Russia sanctions EU after yields Slovakia
The last obstacle for new criminal measures from the European Union against Russia has been removed. Slovakia no longer blocks the new sanction package that the EU has been working on for weeks, the country has announced.
It is more sensible to let the resistance to the sanctions sail now, said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in a video on Facebook. Slovakia was alone. Fico only wanted to agree if Brussels would make concessions to another EU plan to put an end to the import of Russian natural gas. That plan would, according to Fico, hit that plan, which is still very dependent on such gas. But he now settles for a reassuring letter from the European Commission.
The EU member states are expected to agree on Friday morning with the new, now eighteenth sanction package after the relatively Russia-minded Slovakia. Malta had already swallowed his objections on Thursday.