"I noticed that EU Foreign Ministers were meeting and the spin was that they were trying to get Putin off the hook," Jim Sillars said. "I suspect they were actually trying to get the EU off the sanctions hook."
On Monday Federica Mogherini, the EU's head of foreign policy, urged the 28-nation union to enter a "new debate" with Russia to end the "confrontation" over Ukraine.
"That will be difficult given Ukraine's vote to end neutrality which takes it nearer NATO membership, which is unacceptable to Russia for good reasons," Sillars added.
Sillars's comment came after Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko passed a bill on Monday, endorsing the parliament's bid to scrap the nation's years-long non-aligned status to work toward NATO membership. The decision was taken back in summer following a split between Moscow and the new government in Kiev, and Crimea's reunification with Russia in March.
Sillars, who was previously a member of UK parliament representing both the Labor Party and SNP also stressed that despite the Russian economy being affected by a slide in oil prices, the wider economy was in comparatively good health.
"Russia's budget may be affected by low oil prices in 2015 and 2016, but this year the budget is in balance," Sillars told Sputnik. "The Russian state debt, in contrast with private company debt, is very low, leaving US, French, German and Japanese banks at risk to Russian private sector default which would seriously damage Western economies."
Over the past months, the European Union and the United States have imposed several rounds of economic sanctions on Moscow, aimed at weakening its banking, defense and energy sectors, while Russia has responded with a food import embargo. The Kremlin has warned the West several times that its economic restrictions were very likely to backlash.
