Valdai Club TV Debates: When the Anti-Russian Sanctions Will Be Lifted
St. Petersburg, Pavilion G, Conference Hall G5

EU-Russia relations reached a low point. Mutual irritation, which accumulated for years, burst to the surface in connection with the Ukrainian crisis. How a new model of interaction will look like? And what place Russia and the EU can take in the new global world architecture?

EU-Russia relations reached a low point. Mutual irritation, which accumulated for years, burst to the surface in connection with the Ukrainian crisis. How a new model of interaction will look like? And what place Russia and the EU can take in the new global world architecture?

On June 16, 2016, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum the Valdai Discussion Club and Russia 24 TV Channel held a televised debate titled " Russia and the EU: Not Together but Alongside".

One of the main topics of discussion was the analysis of business opportunities with the European partners in conditions of cool relations between Russia and the EU. "We simply have no other choice but to focus on the pragmatic interests", - said Alexei Likhachev, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

According to him, the desire to develop constructive cooperation in the business sphere is maintained by the majority of traditional Russian business partners. Only the political will of Brussels is the counterproductive force.

Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club, was more resolute on this issue. "Let us not underestimate the talents and skills of our European partners - they would like to put all the blame on evil Brussels. The European Union is a very pragmatic construction. When it is profitable, they take the European Commission as a shield <...> and go ahead with a ram attack, when it is not profitable, they put all the blame on the supranational institutions ", - he said.

Experts participating in the debates concluded that future relations between Moscow and Brussels should be normalized, but it will not happen soon until the new principles of interaction, suiting both parties, are to be found. At this stage even the prospect of the lifting of anti-Russian economic sanctions looks extremely unrealistic.

However, there is a way out of the EU-Russia impasse. According to Alexander Rahr, Program Director of the Berthold Beitz Center for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Central Asia, German Council on Foreign Relations, there is a hope that one of the European countries, which is in favor of the of sanctions lifting, will find the courage to say it loud.

Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for the Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club suggested that the anti-Russian sanctions may be cancelled due to the difficult situation in the international arena.

Alexei Likhachev, Fyodor Lukyanov and Arnaud Dubien, Director of the Observatoire, Analytical Centre of the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce, believe that sanctions will not be extended for one year, but for six or even three months. By the end of 2016 a real opportunity to lift them will appear.