© AP Photo/ Thibault CamusCzech President Milos Zeman
Zeman has repeatedly called for the sanctions removal and reiterated that the restrictions would be short-term.
"I have always been against [sanctions]. [The European Union] not only should not prolong [the sanctions], but it should not have introduced [them]. [The sanctions] have to be canceled now, not in the future," Zeman told the Russian Izvestia newspaper in an interview.
The president added that Russia and its partners should persuade the bloc of the necessity to remove the restrictions.
Relations between Russia and European Union deteriorated amid a 2014 crisis in Ukraine. The bloc and its allies have introduced several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions, accusing Moscow of meddling in the Ukrainian conflict.
Sanctions backfire.
Maybe the real question is whether the EU should expel the UK.
The UK still uses the pound not the Euro, it fights for exemptions and special treatment. And now (just when the EU is at its weakest) Mr Cameron is using the significantly weakened European position to make further demands for special treatment in the name of its national interests.
Other European Union members (facing horrendous austerity and immigration problems themselves) might be thinking that with friends like the UK, who needs enemies.