Ireland’s €350m reason to hope for a solution to Russian sanctions

The US extended its sanctions against Russia by 12 months at the start of March, but the EU is dragging its heels, and with good reason. For example, Ireland has lost €350m of exports over the past 12 months.

US president, Barack Obama, announced his decision to continue sanctions against Russia, just a few days ahead of the expiry of the originals, which were put in place over the “undermining of the territorial integrity or stability of Ukraine”. The renewed sanctions will be valid for one year, until March 6, 2017.

Meanwhile, the EU has also agreed, in principle, to renew its sanctions against Russia, for a further six months, but the current regulation ran out on March 15 and, at the time of publishing, there has been no official announcement by the Commission of a renewal of the sanctions.