France hopes for swift lifting of sanctions - ambassador
YEKATERINBURG. Oct 6 (Interfax) - Paris hopes the anti-Russian sanctions will be lifted in the very near future so as to enable continued cooperation with Moscow in full, said French Ambassador to Russia Jean-Maurice Ripert.
"We are hoping to get out of this cycle of sanctions in the very near future. And we have come here (to the Sverdlovsk region) to prepare for the moment when it will be possible to fully employ the machine of Franco-Russian cooperation," Ripert told reporters in Yekaterinburg on Monday.
The sanctions "are not intended to last long" and will be stopped, he said.
"Apart from the annexation of Crimea, which we do not recognize, all other problems in Ukraine have found peaceful solutions that are now in the process of being implemented. There is the protocol of agreements between Ukraine and Russia. Positive talks are underway over the natural gas issue between Russia, Ukraine and Europe," said the head of the diplomatic mission.
The ambassador has arrived in Yekaterinburg with a delegation of representatives from French companies, who presented their cooperation projects to Sverdlovsk region governor Yevgeny Kuivashev at a Monday meeting held without the media.