Hollande Floats Russian Sanctions Relief in EU Split

French President Francois Hollande floated the prospect of scaling back sanctions on Russia, becoming the first major European Union leader to offer to ease the Kremlin’s economic pain.

“If gestures are sent by Russia as we expect, there would be no reason to impose new sanctions but on the contrary to look at how we could bring about a de-escalation from our side,” Hollande said as he headed into an EU summit in Brussels yesterday.