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State Duma Speaker Suggests EU Sanction Kiev Over Minsk Violations

Russian State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin

State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin has suggested the European Union impose sanctions on Kiev for violating the Minsk agreements, the TASS news agency reported Tuesday.

“I want to believe that the proponents of the extension of the anti-Russian restrictions will understand that following their own logic, [they] should have imposed sanctions not on Russia, but on Kiev, over their severe violations of the terms and essence of the Minsk agreements,” Naryshkin was quoted by TASS as saying.

The EU introduced a first package of sanctions against Russia in March in 2014 following the Kremlin's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. In December, the EU prolonged anti-Russian sanctions until July 31 this year.

The EU will lift the sanctions only after the full implementation of the Minsk agreements, negotiated by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France in February last year.

The agreement, aimed at stabilizing the situation in Ukraine, includes providing full territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine's borders.

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