Former President of Romania and current MEP Traian Basescu considers that the Russian Federation should be excluded from the international banking system.
"Russia should be denied access to the international banking system, first of all technology sales to Russia must be halted and we should no longer buy gas from Russia. These are some essential elements. Basically, Vladimir Putin is reinforcing his army with European money, with gas money," Traian Basescu told RFI on Tuesday.
In his view, "it was foreseeable that Vladimir Putin's major goal was not to invade Ukraine, but to strengthen the autonomy of the two so-called self-proclaimed autonomous republics, Donetsk and Luhansk."
"We'll see how severe the sanctions are, because there are too many economic interests, at least in Europe. Let me remind you that sanctions have been imposed before, after the occupation of Crimea, and they were actually against Crimea, not Russia. I wouldn't want us to witness again a European decision to impose sanctions on Donetsk and Luhansk, they should be targeted at Russia," he said.
According to Basescu, "the Ukraine issue is not solved once the independence of the two breakaway republics is recognized."
"Putin's goal is to provide a land connection to Crimea, which means he will further envisage the Novorossiya project campaigned by Russian strategists, as this project aims to extend the occupation of Ukraine to the mouth of the Danube. (...) It is hard to say what else the West can do, apart from honest, severe sanctions against Russia, because military action is out of question and then all that's left is political and economic isolation, which Russia certainly cannot afford if they are thoroughly applied. At least this time the EU should be honest when it speaks about sanctions against Russia," Traian Basescu said.