Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on expansion of the sanctions regime on Russia.

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by the Secretary of state for Foreign and Commowealth Affairs, my right hon. friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), to the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) on 20 January 2015 (PQ 907106) official report column 77. The UK and our EU partners have been very clear with Russia about what it needs to do for the easing of sanctions to be considered. Conversely, if it continues to ignore its obligations under the Minsk agreements, and continues to destabilise Ukraine, we will need to consider strengthening our sanctions.