OREANDA-NEWS. German business has opposed EU sanctions against Russia. This was announced to Izvestia in the Eastern Committee of the German Economy with reference to a survey of German firms operating in the Russian Federation.

“More than half of companies note an improvement in the business climate in Russia in 2021, 93% are in favor of lifting the EU sanctions against Russia,” the Eastern Committee said.

Considering the importance of the EU economic sanctions against Russia as a destructive factor in bilateral economic relations, the overwhelming majority (57%) of the companies surveyed would like to see a gradual, subject to certain conditions, lifting the sanctions.

36% are in favor of immediate lifting of economic sanctions without preconditions, which is slightly more than in the previous year (31%).

Only 7% of companies surveyed vote to maintain the sanctions (last year 9%) until the Minsk agreements are implemented.

Sanctions against Russia were imposed in 2014 amid the armed conflict in southeastern Ukraine and the reunification of Crimea with the Russian Federation. The restrictive measures have been expanded and extended several times. Among other things, negotiations on a visa-free regime and a new basic agreement on cooperation were suspended between Moscow and Brussels, a ban was introduced on entry to EU countries for officials from the Russian Federation and their assets were frozen. Restrictive measures of a commercial, financial and military nature were also introduced. In response, Russia imposed a ban on imports from the EU countries of a number of food products.