MOSCOW: The European Union has blocked the last opportunity for the EU countries to sell weapons to Russia, the RTBF TV channel reported on Thursday.
The European Union, after the annexation of Crimea to Russia, introduced a ban on the export of weapons to Moscow in July 2014, but a special provision under the EU sanctions nevertheless allowed the sale of weapons, provided that it was carried out under contracts concluded before this embargo, the channel explains.
This exclusion has been criticized by a number of EU countries since the beginning of the Russian operation in Ukraine.
Now, with the recent adoption of the fifth sanctions package against the Russian Federation, the EU has canceled the exclusion clause for a number of Russian arms transfers from the European Union, RTBF reports, without giving details of this decision.