Updated 3:39 p.m. Moscow Time
BRUSSELS, October 17 (RIA Novosti) – EU foreign ministers are not expected to revise sanctions against Russia during their meeting next Monday, a high-ranking EU official said Friday.
"Some foreign ministers will raise the issue of sanctions, but no one expects them to make any decision on sanctions," the official said on condition of anonymity.
The issue will be discussed during a Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) meeting expected to be held by the end of October, he said.
On October 14, the head of the European Union's delegation in Russia, Vygaudas Usackas, said that its member states would discuss the lifting of sanctions against Russia in late October.
The European Union, as well as some other countries, have imposed several rounds of economic sanctions against Russia, accusing it of supporting independence fighters in southeastern Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly denied the claim.
In response to the measures, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Western sanctions undermine global economic stability and hurt not only the target country but also those that impose them. Russian authorities have repeatedly stressed that Russia would not discuss any conditions for the lifting of sanctions as it sees them as illegal to begin with.
