BRUSSELS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) on Friday announced to prolong the economic sanctions targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy until Jan. 31, 2017.
According to a press release issued by the Council of the EU, the economic sanctions prolonged with the decision include limiting access to EU primary and secondary capital markets for five major Russian majority state-owned financial institutions and their majority-owned subsidiaries established outside of the EU, as well as three major Russian energy and three defense companies.
The sanctions also involve imposing an export and import ban on trade in arms, establishing an export ban for dual-use goods for military use or military end users in Russia, and curtailing Russian access to certain sensitive technologies and services that can be used for oil production and exploration.
The press release said that these measures were introduced on July 31 2014 initially for one year in response to "Russia's actions destabilizing the situation in Ukraine". They were reinforced in September 2014, targeting the financial, energy and defense sectors, and the area of dual-use goods.
On March 19, 2015, the European Council agreed to link the duration of the sanctions to the complete implementation of the Minsk agreements, which was foreseen to take place by Dec. 31, 2015.
Since the Minsk agreements were not fully implemented by Dec. 31, 2015, the Council extended the sanctions until July 31, 2016. Having assessed the implementation of the Minsk agreements, the Council decided to renew the sanctions for a further six months, until Jan. 31, 2017.
