{"id":239,"date":"2014-12-29T08:34:48","date_gmt":"2014-12-29T08:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/box5917.temp.domains\/~iriacom\/\/news\/?p=239"},"modified":"2015-01-12T15:30:20","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T15:30:20","slug":"more-sanctions-against-russia-are-unwise-and-harmful-austrian-president-heinz-fischer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/more-sanctions-against-russia-are-unwise-and-harmful-austrian-president-heinz-fischer\/","title":{"rendered":"More sanctions against Russia are \u2018unwise and harmful\u2019 &#8211; Austrian President Heinz Fischer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Austrian President Heinz Fischer warned against intensifying sanctions against Russia, calling the move <em>\u201cunwise and harmful\u201d<\/em> in an interview to Wirtschaftsblatt newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>The approach that more and more sanctions should be implemented against Russia until it is <em>\u201cweak enough\u201d<\/em> to forcefully accept the EU\u2019s own <em>\u201cpolitical objectives\u201d<\/em> is a mistake, according to Fischer.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI support those who say that we have reached a stage where&#8230;the imposition of new sanctions against Russia will continue to hinder its development, but will not bring us closer to an amicable solution,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Fischer said, adding that it will only create a deeper rift.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe Russian economy has a certain degree of robustness, but the sanctions pose considerable problems&#8230;a serious crisis in Russia and an economic collapse would only create more problems. The doors between Europe and Russia must remain open in the economic field,\u201d<\/em> he stressed.<\/p>\n<p>What the Ukraine crisis needs are talks around decentralization reforms, Fischer noted.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSerious talk of reforms in the area of decentralization or federalization would have to be done, which would foster a situation in eastern Ukraine where both sides could live together.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In terms of moving towards a solution in Ukraine, a respected ceasefire and reasonable dialogue would need to be observed, Fischer added.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Austrian leader, the EU overestimated the appeal of the <a href=\"http:\/\/rt.com\/news\/218107-ukraine-poll-donbass-eu-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\">free trade deal<\/a>, which forced Ukraine to choose between Europe and Russia.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cBrussels apparently overestimated the attractiveness of European Association Agreement compared to the other option for Ukraine \u2013 namely the offer from Russia,\u201d<\/em> he said. <em>\u201cIt was recognized only at the last moment that it was a real ordeal for Ukraine to choose between EU offer and the billion offer from [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, which was better suited for the realities faced by Ukraine in the fall of 2013.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Ukraine needs to be free to build its own relationships with both Europe and Russia, Fischer concluded.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rt.com\/news\/218271-eu-confrontation-ukraine-russia\/\" target=\"_blank\">RT NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Austrian President Heinz Fischer warned against intensifying sanctions against Russia, calling the move \u201cunwise and harmful\u201d in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,1],"tags":[94,24,60,20,22],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-austria","tag-eu","tag-humanitarian-crisis","tag-russia","tag-ukraine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Austria-Heinz-Fischer.jpg?fit=650%2C369&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-3R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}