In light of joint fight against the coronavirus outbreak many controversial issues in US-Russia relations retreat a little bit. Their cooperation in fighting coronavirus revives the spirit of the Elbe Day. The decision of Prague 6 district to remove the monument to Soviet marshal Ivan Konev goes contrary to this spirit. Moreover, the First Ukrainian Front, whose regiment met American troops on the Elbe River, was under Konev’s command. Therefore, the monument’s removal is an insult to the Elbe Day and the joint fight against coronavirus.
Summary
The calls to lift sanctions on Russia are not new. Since the introduction of European sanctions in 2014 after the re-annexation of Crimea to Russia, we increasingly hear these calls from many countries because Europe, European businessmen and politicians know that these sanctions not only harm Russia but more severely harm the European economy, whose losses amount to tens of billions of euros. The sanctions led to the bankruptcy of many European companies and businessmen, so we see repeated calls for the lifting of sanctions on Russia.
Disproof
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Western sanctions on Russia and US presence in Europe. You can see other examples here, here, and here.
Since March 2014, the EU has progressively imposed restrictive measures against Russia. The measures were adopted in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and the deliberate destabilisation of Ukraine.
The narrative about sanctions is often backed by false statistics, contrary to the actual evidence. According to the most recent research into the effect of sanctions, the cumulated export loss to Russia during 2014-2018 is estimated at EUR 30 billion (about -0.2% of EU’s GDP in 2018), incurred largely during 2014-2016, as EU exports to Russia recovered in 2017.
See similar cases that the European economy is losing hundreds of billions due to sanctions and that the EU loses 450 billion euros yearly because of the sanctions against Russia.