US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said in an interview with the Real Time TV channel that an illegal seizure took place in Crimea, and European and American sanctions should affect the behavior of the Russian Federation and change it. But according to the ambassador, the solution to the problem with the peninsula does not consist in lifting these sanctions.
“As for the sanctions in general, the fact is that the American sanctions are not aimed at punishing any country or group of people. We want to influence and change behavior. We want to rectify the situation, for example, in Ukraine, in Crimea. We believe that an illegal seizure took place in Crimea, and the Donbas is still restless. Our sanctions, like the EU sanctions, are aimed at this kind of behavior. If it changes, for which, in fact, the sanctions are needed, they will be lifted”, – he said.
The ambassador noted that on the one hand, one can say that the sanctions do not work, since the problem persists, but he does not think that its solution is to lift the sanctions.