OREANDA-NEWS. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a news conference following talks with his Finnish counterpart Antti Rinne that Moscow would not be the first to lift counter-sanctions against the European Union. At the same time, he believes that the extension of the sanctions and counter-sanctions regime directly depends on progress in resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

“If we discuss some first steps of Russia, the abolition of some of our… retaliatory restrictive measures, there is a well-known answer… Of course, we will not abolish anything,” Medvedev said.

The politician added that Moscow is interested in normalizing relations with Brussels, but will not do anything until the European Union wants to restore them. According to Medvedev, despite the fact that “sanctions do not please anyone,” some Russian entrepreneurs are in favor of maintaining counter-sanctions forever.

Earlier, Medvedev has repeatedly stated that representatives of the Russian agribusiness stand for maintaining the embargo imposed in response to Western sanctions on the import into Russia of various food products produced abroad.

However, in March 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to lift food counter-sanctions in case of lifting the sanctions imposed against Russia.

On November 25, at a meeting with Finnish leader, the Russian Prime Minister discussed the development of bilateral trade relations. As it was reported at a joint press conference, the trade turnover, which decreased in 2014–2016, began to rise and reached 14.8 billion euros in 2018. Finnish investment in Russia grew to 14.3 billion euros.