Time to end sanctions against Russia, says French President.

[Denzil_DC]

85. Many sanctions regimes over years have had adverse effects on the states imposing the sanctions.

You may recall the dogged opposition from Thatcher and her ilk to sanctions against South Africa, for fear of her husband's, son's, and other cronies' adventures in capitalism being impeded. (There are a host of other examples.)

Did that make her right?

If diplomacy has nuances (yes, it does), that isn't reflected in your OP nor the RT article, so if that's a late realization of yours, it's to be encouraged. When it comes to sanctions, it's carrots and sticks, usually accompanied by hearty helpings of hypocrisy, feints, double dealing, covert circumvention, and squirming on one or all sides.

But in the end, Hollande's current position is evidently that Putin must make concessions over Ukraine before sanctions can be lifted. His expressed hopes are nothing more than that, and if you're looking for nuance, you could take his assertion that he's not interested in the negotiations if they're going to be a mere talking shop with no real progress as a warning that his hopes, and his patience, are not boundless. I doubt anybody's going to take a promise from Putin at face value, it's going to take concrete action for any significant changes in the sanctions regime to take place.

It's a war of nerves, and RT is desperate to push the idea of splits among the sanctioning countries. That's propaganda, as much as portraying any of the Ukraine factions as irredeemable demons en masse or trying to revive the Cold War over a horrible but currently contained border dispute.