Energy sanctions against Russia would be 'inappropriate', EU says

Reuters

ATHENS (Reuters) - European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on Friday that Russia is Europe's main trading partner in natural gas and that there should be therefore no sanctions against Moscow's energy sector over the crisis in Ukraine. Sanctions against the Russian energy sector are "something that is inappropriate," Oettinger told reporters through an interpreter after a meeting of EU energy ministers in Athens. (Reporting by Harry Papachristou and Barbara Lewis)