Macron: Sanctions on Russia are not working

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday in Brussels that the EU “needed to very deeply rework” its relationship with Moscow and that “the sanctions policy” had reached its “limits”, towards both Russia and Belarus.

He felt that it was no longer necessary to be “simply reactive” but “to define a short, medium and long term strategy” with Russia. “The policy of progressive sanctions using asset freezing is no longer an effective policy,” he added during a press briefing after the European Council.

Emmanuel Macron was questioned on the impact of the European sanctions adopted against Belarus, after the hijacking of an airliner to arrest an opponent, but also those taken against Moscow to release the opponent Alexeï Navalny, to date without result.

“What you are saying is very correct, but what other type of measure would you have in mind?” the French president asked the journalist. “It’s not easy to say, what else we can do. In these cases, do we start an armed conflict? ” he said jokingly.

“I think we are at a moment of truth in our relationship with Russia, which should lead us to rethink the terms of the pressures we decide to make use of,” Macron concluded.

Thus, the sanctions taken on Monday evening against Belarus are  also only a first step for Macron.