EU Extends Sanctions Against Russia Until End of January 2017

The Council of the European Union said Friday it had decided to extend economic sanctions against Russia by another six months on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The sanctions include limited access to EU capital markets for a number of Russian financial institutions, as well as energy and defense companies, a ban on arms trade, and limited access for Russia to certain oil production technologies.

"On 1 July 2016, the Council prolonged the economic sanctions targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy until 31 January 2017," the Council said in a press statement.

Relations between Russia and the West deteriorated amid the 2014 crisis in Ukraine. The European Union, the United States and their allies have introduced several rounds of anti-Russian sanctions since the reunification of Crimea with Russia in 2014, accusing Moscow of meddling in the Ukrainian conflict, a claim Russian authorities have repeatedly denied.

Washington and Brussels imposed sanctions against Russian individuals and the Russian defense, energy and banking sectors in July 2014. Russia responded by introducing a year-long food embargo on imports from the United States, the European Union and other countries that targeted Russia, subsequently extending the current embargo until August 5, 2016.