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Russia slams new EU sanctions as 'divorced from reality'

Iran Press TV

Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:30PM GMT

Russia has described as "divorced from reality" the new sanctions imposed on the country by the European Union while supporting an EU decision to send a monitoring mission to Ukraine.

On Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement, in which it slammed sanctions imposed on 12 Russian and Crimean individuals by the European Union as "divorced from reality."

In the statement, the ministry's spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, stressed Moscow's right to give a proportional response to the sanctions over ongoing developments in Crimea Peninsula.

The new sanctions were imposed on Friday, when the EU added the name of 12 Russian and Crimean officials to a list of people targeted by EU asset freezes and travel bans. The list now contains the names of 33 individuals.

'It's a pity that the European Council made a decision that is divorced from reality,' read the statement on the Russian ministry's website.

'We believe it is time to return to the platform of pragmatic cooperation that reflects the interests of our countries. However, of course, the Russian side reserves itself the right to give a comparable answer to the actions taken,' it added.

In a separate statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry welcomed the decision by the EU to send a monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to Ukraine and expressed hope that the mission could help resolve the 'internal Ukrainian crisis.'

It said, however, that the observers are excluded from Crimea which is now officially part of Russia.

'The mission's mandate reflects the new political and legal realities and does not apply to Crimea and Sevastopol, which became a part of Russia,' the Foreign Ministry said in its statement on Saturday.

The Russian Federation has agreed to join the 56 other members of the OSCE in a consensual decision to send a six-month monitoring mission to Ukraine.

MOL/HMV/SS