EU should have clearer policy on Russia – Nausėda

President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda believes that the European Union should have clearer policies concerning Russia, which had started the war against Ukraine. According to the head of state, this will be possible only when the West takes a principled stance on its economic ties with the aggressor country.

On Tuesday, 10 December, President Nausėda took part in the Vilnius Foreign and Security Policy Conference hosted by the Eastern Europe Studies Centre. He noted that on the one hand the West imposes sanctions on Russia, but on the other hand it introduces increasingly more sanction exemptions.

The president also stated that the interests of Western companies affect sanctions and while business has so much influence on politics there is no ground to speak about the EU’s principled and values-based foreign policy.

Nausėda remarked that he is not under the impression that Russia would be suffering because of its aggression, even though at the start of the war it was hoped that tough sanctions would undermine Russia’s economic vitality. According to him, the intensity of sanctions is gradually weakening, while exemptions and sanction evasion are accelerating.

The EU Member States have imposed a total of 14 sanction packages against Russia for its aggression against Ukraine. Trade restrictions were also introduced against Belarus seeking to prevent sanction evasion by Russia.