“The European Union will lift anti-Russian sanctions sooner than Washington will do it, but there is no guarantee that this will happen next summer,” the Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Kalashnikov said.

Earlier, AFP (Agence France-Presse) published a report of the French Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs Emmanuel Macron which said that the restrictions of Western countries against Russia would be lifted next summer.

I believe Europe is going to lift the sanctions earlier than the United States. However, it’s very questionable when they are going to do it, due to the fact that Europe is under pressure from Washington,” Kalashnikov said.

According to his opinion, the United States are not ready today to lift the anti-Russian sanctions. “Europe, on the contrary, has this attitude because of a large turnover between our countries and strong economic dependence on each other. And not because they are expecting the implemention of the”Minsk-2″ agreements from Russia and Ukraine, or love or don’t love Russia. They just think pragmatically,” the official explained.