AT last week’s St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin’s flagship economic conference, a pair of guests raised Russia’s increasingly fervent hopes for a rapprochement with the European Union. Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime minister, regaled the crowd with references to shared cultural history. The European Commission’s president, Jean-Claude Juncker, chided Russia for its aggression in Ukraine, but also spoke of building bridges. Nonetheless, when the sanctions come up for re-approval at the end of this month, the EU looks set to extend the toughest ones until January 2017.
The EU is holding the line on sanctions with strong backing from Germany, …read more
Source: The Economist
