Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Union Vladimir ChizhovMOSCOW, March 16 Anti-Russian sanctions will not pass harmlessly for the EU, because Russia and the EU countries are firmly connected in the field of economy, said the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the EU Vladimir Chizhov. «The degree of interdependence between Russia and the EU countries, primarily in the trade and economic field, is high enough that, firstly, unilateral actions could be painless for the organizers themselves, that is, for the EU-sheep themselves. And secondly, so that they can completely hermetically isolate Russia from its European neighbors. There is neither one nor the other,» he said on the air of the Rossiya 24 TV channel. .Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on 24 February. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops. With the support of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive. But there is no question of the occupation of Ukraine, the President of Russia emphasized. In response, Western countries imposed new anti-Russian sanctions, including against Russian banks and enterprises. A number of companies announced their withdrawal from the Russian market and the closure of production facilities in the Russian Federation.
