The potential successor to Angela Merkel as German Chancellor, the new chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Armin Laschet, sees no reason to lift the sanctions against Russia. The politician said this in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, which TASS refers to.
"There are still covert and open acts of aggression from the Russian-dominated side in eastern Ukraine," Laschet said.
He recalled that the reason for the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions was the illegal annexation of Crimea. Another part of the restrictive measures is related to the implementation of the Minsk agreements and the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
"With regard to the Minsk agreements, I would like to see more progress. In this regard, there is no reason to lift the sanctions now," stated the leader of the CDU party, which is part of the ruling coalition in Germany.
Laschet stressed that the refusal to recognize Crimea as the territory of the Russian Federation "remains the position of Germany and the West."
The Prime Minister of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia Armin Laschet was elected the new chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in January this year. Given that the current German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised to leave her post after the end of her term of office, Laschet is considered one of the main candidates for the post of head of the German government. The German Bundestag will elect a new candidate on September 26, 2021.
