BLAGOVESHCHENSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th December, 2018) Czech President Milos Zeman believes that anti-Russian sanctions are useless, and there is no strong leader at the level of the European Union.
"Sanctions are useless, they do not help anything. I hope that sooner or later these sanctions will no longer exist," Zeman told the Vesti Nedeli show on Russia's NTV broadcaster.
According to the Czech president, the European Union lacks a strong leader.
"Russia undoubtedly has a strong leader. China has a strong leader, the United States has a strong leader. Please find me a strong leader at the European Union level. I look left, I look right, I look straight, I look back - I simply don't see a strong leader," he said.
Zeman also said that he did not expect any large-scale military conflict.
"You know, now the goals of war are achieved via economic means, and not with weapons," he said.
The relations between Moscow and the West deteriorated over the situation in Ukraine and Crimea's reunification with Russia in 2014. The Russian authorities have repeatedly stated that the use of sanctions was counterproductive and called for normalizing relations. Russia has repeatedly stressed that it was not a party to the Ukrainian conflict, and that Crimea rejoined it following a referendum that was held in compliance with international law.
