MOSCOW (Sputnik) – France’s ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy called on Russia and the European Union on Thursday to scrap mutual sanctions, but said Moscow should reach out first. Russia banned EU food exports in 2014 after Europe slapped it with economic restrictions.
"I don’t know if it would be wise to take such charitable action as lifting countermeasures," Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Putin was informed about Sarkozy’s proposal, Peskov said, adding there was no official response from the president.
The spokesman linked Moscow’s reluctance to make the first step to EU and US "misinterpretation" of the Minsk deal on Ukraine, which apportions the blame for lack of progress on Ukrainian peace to Russia.
