A certain crisis can be observed within EU in connection with further sanctions against Russia - political expert

RIGA - Currently, a certain crisis can be observed within the European Union (EU) in connection with the further implementation of sanctions against Russia, political scientist Karlis Dauksts told LETA.

He noted that this is exactly the reason why it is difficult to predict what will be included in the potential 9th sanctions package, because several EU countries, for example, have one policy in the field of oil exports, and another in the field of gas exports and imports. Since there is no common position among different EU countries, it is difficult to predict the technical execution of unified sanctions.

Dauksts also drew attention to the fact that personal sanctions against individual Russian citizens are often frozen or softened.

The political scientist emphasized that the sanctions do not only harm Russia, but also create quite big problems for the EU, and it is difficult to predict when they will produce results that will limit Russia's ability to receive additional income from high gas or oil prices, because there is no complete mechanism for achieving this for the sanctions to take effect.

As reported, while participating in the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia called to start work on the development of the ninth round of sanctions against Russia, as well as to continue restrictive measures against Belarus, which provides support to Russia in its war against Ukraine.