“If Russia is retreating on the ground, it is also thanks to European sanctions”, says the chairman of the European Affairs Committee of the Assembly

The 27 member states have agreed on an eighth package of sanctions against Russia. They will be published on Thursday 6 October. “If Russia is retreating on the ground, it is also thanks to European sanctions”, says on franceinfo Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, the chairman of the European Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.

franceinfo: The European Union has voted new sanctions against Russia. This is the eighth sanctions package. Will they really work this time?

Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade: Yes, and the previous ones are already extremely effective. Today, the Russian economy is in tatters. His industry is crashing. And it’s a very strong response days after the sham referenda and bogus annexations. Russia is experiencing its deepest recession since the 1990s. Its GDP has fallen by 11%. If Russia is retreating on the ground, it is because the Europeans are taking measures together which directly affect its war effort.

But there is still a form of hypocrisy: since the start of the invasion in Ukraine, the sale of oil and gas has brought in more than 160 billion euros to Russia…

We are in the process of definitively breaking our dependence on Russian fossil fuels. That takes time. Notably because European countries were doped with Russian gas and oil. These debates on Europe’s energy dependence are complex. These new sanctions will further cut our dependence on Russian fossil fuels. One day soon, Russia will have no more income from Europe on its fossil fuels. This is the good news of this war.

To those who tell you here in France that a “ceasefire” is needed in Ukraine, what do you answer?

If we had listened to Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon or Éric Zemmour at the start of the invasion last February, the Russians would already be in kyiv. They tell us that in the name of peace, we must stop punishing the Russians and stop bringing arms to Ukraine. It’s not keeping the peace, it’s abandoning Ukraine. We must continue this war effort.


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