There are not many reasons to believe that the EU strategy on Russia will show signs of gradual relaxation in the immediate future, Gunter Walzenbach, senior lecturer at the University of the West of England, said.

As long as the threat to the territorial integrity of Ukraine is real and present the EU sanction regime will continue both in terms of target selection and comprehensiveness, he said responding to an e-mail inquiry by Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Asked whether the sanction regime imposed by the EU had an impact on Russia's foreign policy, Walzenbach said it is always difficult to assess the impact of sanctions on any particular target country.

“Historically we know that sanctions sometimes work and sometimes they do not. From my point of view the policy makers in Brussels indeed have reasons to be satisfied with the relative success of their approach. The official EU account sees the range of restrictive measures that have been introduced as part of an attempt to change Russia’s policy vis-a-vis Ukraine. However, these come with parallel efforts to keep communication lines open and that try to achieve a diplomatic solution through peaceful negotiation, ” the political analyst said.

Moreover, the EU has at a very early stage excluded any military intervention in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.

“As a consequence, there seem to be not many other instruments left on part of the Union to articulate its opposition to the course of action chosen by Vladimir Putin in recent months”.

The Russian economy is clearly feeling the impact of sanctions further augmented by pre-existing structural problems, the falling oil prices and the retaliatory imposition of trade embargos especially for agricultural products from European markets, he emphasized.