EU agrees to extend Russia economic sanctions for 6 months: sources

EU member states agreed Friday to roll over for another six months damagingeconomic sanctions against Russia for its involvement in the Ukraine crisis, EUsources said.

"COREPER agreed to the extension of sanctions against Russia," one of thesources told AFP, referring to a formal meeting of the 28 country ambassadors to the European Union.

The source, who asked not to be named, said the procedure will close Monday and the formal announcement will be made Tuesday, with the sanctions extended to end-July.

The decision was originally meant to be a formality.

But it ended up delayed by two weeks after several countries, led by Italy, raised questions about the wisdom of punishing Russia while also seeking its help on key international issues, including the Syrian conflict.

Italy has traditionally close ties with Russia and wanted EU leaders at a Thursday-Friday summit in Brussels to discuss the issue, but despite Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's efforts it was not on the agenda.

Earlier Friday, the European Commission announced another decision likely to cause offence in Moscow, offering short-stay visa-free travel to the EU for Ukraine, Georgia and Kosovo, all embroiled in disputes with Moscow.

Russia's own efforts to get visa-free travel, if only for its businessmen, fell foul of the Ukraine crisis, with Brussels suspending talks on the issue in March last year.

The European Union first imposed economic sanctions against Russia after the July 2014 downing of a Malaysia Airlines jet, blamed on pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Coming up for renewal in early December, EU diplomatic sources told AFP at the time that while there were differences over what line to take, the simplest option was toextend the measures as they were.

Moscow has repeatedly dismissed the sanctions which target its bank, oil and defence sectors as both ineffective and counter-productive to the better mutual understanding the EU says it wants.

The diplomatic sources said that the aim of a straight rollover was to avoid having the issue discussed at the summit for fear differences would surface in public.