PARIS/DUSHANBE (Agencies)
EU states are considering imposing sanctions on Russia over the crisis in Georgia, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the European Union presidency, said Thursday.
"Sanctions are being considered, and many other means," in preparation for an emergency EU summit next Monday on Europe's response to Russia's conflict with the ex-Soviet republic, Kouchner said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slammed the sanctions as the product of a "sick imagination" and Western confusion,
"Apart from that my friend Kouchner also said that we will soon attack Moldova and Ukraine and the Crimea ... But that is a sick imagination and probably that applies to sanctions as well," Lavrov told reporters in the Tajik capital.
"I think it is a demonstration of complete confusion," he said.
Russia is facing an avalanche of condemnation from the West over its decision to recognize the independence of two Georgian secessionist regions at the heart of the conflict that erupted this month. |
