EU's Josep Borrell says sanctions against Russia working; but 'it'll take time for effect'

With European Union opting six packs of sanctions against Moscow, High Representative of European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, has stated that "EU is about to finalise 'maintenance and alignment' pack to clarify a number of provisions to strengn legal certainty for operators and align EU's sanctions with those of our allies and partners of G7." He furr said that sanctions imposed on Russia are hitting Kremlin hard and ir effects will be seen in future, as per statement mentioned on official website of European Union External Action.

EU's Josep Borrell says Sanctions against Russia are working

"Our sanctions are hitting Kremlin hard and ir effects on Russian ecomy will increase furr. We need strategic patience until Ukraine is able to recover its sovereignty in full," said Josep Borrell. However, he said EU needs to use sanctions in a well-targetted matter and, above all, y "require strategic patience because it may take a long time for m to have desired effect."

One of major sanctions opted by EU is to suspend 90% of EU oil purchases from Moscow by end of this year, as this step will deprive Russia of revenues, Borrell said.

"Cutting our structural energy dependence on Russia matters a lot because this dependence has been an obstacle to developing a strong European policy towards Moscow’s aggressive actions," EU High Representative ded, saying that Putin always believed that EU would never sanction Russia as it was too dependent on energy, but "this rapid detoxification from Russian energy involves significant costs for a number of countries and sectors that we will have to face." However, it is price to pay to defend our democracies and international law, he said.

Speaking on ecomic condition of Russia, Borrell stated that sanctions imposed by EU are hurting Russian ecomy and country has a massive imbalance between high volume of oil and gas exports and parallel collapse of imports. He underscored that this "tre surplus" is t a sign of good ecomic health, especially for an ecomy like Russia. "Russia will try to substitute imports through domestic products." "This was done, t without success, in agricultural sector after 2014 sanctions." However, for high-tech products, it is much more difficult to achieve, he ded.