German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the European Union should aim to forge a common economic bloc with Moscow stretching from Vladivostok in the Pacific Ocean to Lisbon in Portugal. Speaking at a corporate event Merkel expressed the view that economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU due to the crisis in Ukraine were not an end in themselves. She did clarify, however, that the key to lifting the economic blockade on Russia was the implementation of the Minsk peace Accord. ‘We should gradually move towards that aim (common economic union with Russia)’, said Merkel.