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Today's European Leaders Lack Independence – President Putin

© RIA Novosti . Mikhail Klementiev / Go to the mediabankVladimir Putin at the All-Russia Seliger-2014 youth forum on August 29, 2014
Vladimir Putin at the All-Russia Seliger-2014 youth forum on August 29, 2014 - Sputnik International
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Current European leaders are unable to behave independently, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

SELIGER (Tver Region), August 29 (RIA Novosti) – Current European leaders are unable to behave independently, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

“But if today’s leaders of Europe are far from being able to show independence, then that doesn’t mean that this trend has failed. Regardless this trend to independence, to sovereignty, to their own opinions, to standing up for their own positions: this is growing and will continue to grow in the future. It’s a shame that not everyone from our colleagues in the West notice this,” Putin said.

The European countries have been pressured since the crisis in Ukraine escalated, when the United States urged the European Union to follow its lead and impose tougher sanctions against Russia.

The US government has released a sanctions list that includes a number of Russian companies, with which US firms are prohibited from cooperating. The European Union took similar steps, banning certain Russian individuals from entry to EU countries and implementing sanctions against Russian businesses, mainly from the energy and financial sectors.

The sanctions were imposed by the West over allegations that Russia was responsible for the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, supplying independence supporters in eastern Ukraine with weapons, a claim Moscow has repeatedly denied.

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