An aerial view shows people standing on a bridge looking at a convoy of
hearses carrying the remains of the victims of the crash of Malaysia
Airlines flight MH17 from an airbase in Eindhoven to Hilversum, the
Netherlands on July 24, 2014.
German industry would support "100 per cent"
tougher sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis, the chairman
of a major business lobby, the Committee on Eastern European Economic
Relations, said Friday.
Punitive measures now being
considered by the EU would hurt German businesses, but "if there is a
price to pay then we will pay it," the chairman, Eckhardt Cordes, told
the business daily Handelsblatt.
Cordes, who has so far
spoken out against sanctions, said the situation had changed with the
downing a passenger jet over eastern Ukraine, which Western powers have
blamed on pro-Moscow rebels.
The handling of the
disaster had been an "act of inhumanity," said Cordes, the former CEO of
retail group Metro, who spoke of "disturbing conduct of separatists
rummaging through corpses."
The committee, which
represents more than 6,000 German companies with business links to
Russia, had previously warned sanctions would risk many of the 350,000
related German jobs.
In the latest interview, Cordes
criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin for supporting the rebels in
the former Soviet satellite state.
"If Putin continues along this path then this is not the path of German industry," he said.
"It
is now urgently necessary that he asserts his influence over the
separatists, and if he doesn't have any influence than he better get
some."
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