BRUSSELS. May 22 (Interfax) - Moscow's envoy to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov believes it would be wrong to say that some consensus is emerging within the EU concerning the possibility of imposing economic sanctions on Russia.
"Some EU states are opposed to any economic sanctions altogether, and their leaders have announced it openly and publicly. For example, President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades made an appropriate statement several days ago. He was echoed by a whole group of other leaders," Chizhov told Interfax in Brussels.
"Certainly, there are countries thinking that the language of sanctions is the one-and-only language that can be used in relations with Russia. I would not like to name them. Let this rest on their conscience, if they still have any of it left," he added.
Representatives of the European Commission keep threatening to consider the possibility of enacting the "third phase" of EU sanctions against Russia, Chizhov said.
"Evidently, they are trying to convince themselves and, in my opinion, their overseas partners, who, as far as I can see, are looking forward to Europe imposing some economic sanctions on Russia, a measure that will not benefit Russia and definitely will not benefit the EU. Can you guess who it will benefit?" he said.
"And what does the "third phase" mean? They adopted a decision at the highest level, at the EU summit, in March that the first and second phases would come in the beginning. Only the third one will be economic, in other words "sectoral". Such restrictive measures are not directed against any concrete private individuals or legal entities, or companies. Rather, they target certain industries," Chizhov said.
There is no point in trying to guess today which sectors of the Russian economy might suffer as a result of such restrictive measures on the part of Europe, he said.
Some European officials, among them European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger, have publicly spoken against any sanctions targeting the energy sector, primarily gas supplies, Chizhov said.
Such an approach is logical, the Russian diplomat added.
Furthermore, Russia is the European Union's third largest trade partner after the United States and China, and holds second place in terms of imports, Chizhov said.
"That is why the business community's concern over the idea of sanctions is totally justified. We know about the signals, quite clear signals, that companies already operating on the Russian market and those willing to enter the Russian market have been sending to the governments of their countries. This issue is especially sensitive for the European economy in the current situation, as it has just begun recovering from the effects of the financial and economic crisis," Chizhov said.
However, "it does not mean that such steps will be painless for the Russian economy", since "the Russian economy is quite firmly integrated into the world economy," the envoy said. The aim of such steps on the part of the European Union is not absolutely clear because "officials in the EU say that sanctions are not a goal in itself, but it is only a means of making Russia step up its efforts to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine," Chizhov said.
"It is some distorted logic because the path toward de-escalation in Ukraine evidently lies through the implementation of the agreements that were reached in Geneva on April 17," he said.
These agreements call on all illegal armed groups to disarm and vacate the buildings they currently occupy, he said.
"But nothing of this kind is being done either in Kyiv or western Ukraine. That is why, if one wants to seriously speak about de-escalation, in this case those (including the European Union) who made this ill-advised decision to support the illegitimate Kyiv regime from the very beginning ought to think now themselves how they can help defuse this crisis," Chizhov said.