Baltic States – CIS, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Russia, Ukraine

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"The EU Foreign Affairs Council confirms inclusion of several EU and UA citizens in the sanctions list," the minister indicated, adding that an official decision would be released next Monday, February 16.

When asked to comment on the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius' statement that the EU has agreed to postpone the implementation of new individual sanctions against Russia to give time to see if a four-way Ukraine peace summit on Wednesday makes progress, Rinkevics told LETA that "there has been a little confusion about the decision taken today to include several citizens of Russia and Ukraine in the list of EU sanctions."

"A decision was made today to impose sanctions against 19 citizens of Russia and Ukraine," said the minister, stressing once again that the decision would be published next Monday. The Normandy-style talks are under way at the moment, said Rinkevics, adding that he could not comment on his French counterpart's statements.

If a meeting between Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia indeed takes place in Minsk on Wednesday, and if "immense progress" is achieved regarding everything that has been decided previously, from demarcation lines to troop pullouts and handing border control over to Ukraine by Russia, lifting any of the sanctions will require a separate decision to be made, said Rinkevics.

"This will mean that all 28 EU member states have to agree on lifting the sanctions," explained the minister. "If there really is a miracle, the EU could revise the decision, but that would be a new legal and political procedure," said Rinkevics, adding that he primarily meant the last package of the sanctions.

"A few days will not be enough for all the sanctions. We wish to see the current Minsk agreement honored," said Rinkevics. "I do not believe that if some agreement is signed on Wednesday, everybody will be rushing to revise the sanctions already on Thursday," he stressed, reminding though that the EU, including Latvia, said previously that the existing sanctions could be mitigated.

"But I fear that it will take a very long time," said the minister. "Let us be realists, it is not even clear if the meeting will take place at all. Everybody is hoping for the meeting in Minsk, but it has not yet even been confirmed," indicated Rinkevics. "I very much hope that the meeting takes place, so some mechanism is agreed upon that will make it possible to de-escalate the situation in Eastern Ukraine."