MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax) - The EU sanctions against Russia are illegitimate as only the UN Security Council may adopt such decisions, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said.
He expressed doubts that the EU decided on the sanctions independently.
"As you know, it was not Russia which introduce the sanctions and so it is not up to us to lift them; the mere sanctions policy is defective and they are illegitimate in themselves since only the UN Security Council decides on the imposition of sanctions against one country or another," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov told a press conference.
"It looks even more absurd amid the fact that our counterparts link the possibility of the denunciation of sanctions with the implementation of the Minsk agreements and it is Kyiv that doesn't implement the agreements, while the sanctions are extended against Russia," he said. The question here is a more sophisticated one, Meshkov said, adding that "the question is about the independence of the European Union in making such important political decisions."
"There is something one should think about here, including in Brussels," Meshkov said.