MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Bulgaria's President Rumen Radev said Friday he could not make the first step to end economic sanctions on Russia but would endorse such initiative, in an interview with a local television channel.
"I will gladly endorse actions to have these sanctions cancelled but – to make it clear – a president cannot initiate them unilaterally," he told BTV.
Radev said EU mechanisms allowed any country to make a motion to scrap sanctions and suggested this would happen eventually as bilateral restrictive measures were harmful for all parties concerned.
The European Union imposed economic sanctions on Russia in 2014 over Moscow's alleged meddling in the Ukrainian conflict. Russia denied any involvement and placed restrictions on EU imports. Both EU sanctions and reciprocal measures have been extended multiple times, crippling EU-Russia economic ties.
