The twenty-seven agree to freeze the assets of the country’s largest bank, as well as more entities and individuals associated with the Kremlin
European Union (EU) member states took another step this Wednesday to increase pressure on Russia, adopting a new round of sanctions in retaliation for Ukraine’s invasion. This series of economic penalties includes the blocking of assets in the community area of the country’s largest bank, Sberbank, as well as the ban on importing gold from that region in all its forms – in powder, rough, in coins…- and also as part of jewelry.
These sentences already received the support of the Foreign Ministers of the Twenty-seven on Monday and their approval was reached at ambassadorial level this Wednesday. Now the sanctions will go through a formal written procedure and will be published in the EU Official Gazette before they are expected to come into effect this Thursday.
As the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, noted at the meeting of foreign ministers, the community bloc is facing “an endurance test” against Russia and member states “cannot afford to show signs of fatigue.” show”.
“The sanctions are working and now we need to make them more effective,” he stressed. And that is precisely the aim of this seventh round, which aims to close some of the gaps in the previous packages – to prevent Russia from skipping them – in addition to aligning the community bloc with its G7 partners, who have already had taken measures to ban imports of Russian gold.
European countries have also expanded the list of personalities and entities sanctioned for their links to the Vladimir Putin regime or for their involvement in or support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The assets these persons have in Europe will be frozen and their access to EU territory will be prohibited. That blacklist includes dozens of oligarchs, military commanders and relatives of the Russian president, as well as entities associated with the war.
Facing Russian propaganda accusing Europe of the global food crisis caused by the war, the Twenty-seven promised that the sanctions “will not endanger” food and energy security. In this way, the Union authorizes states to “unlock”, “if necessary for the purchase, import or transport of food products” certain funds from Russian banks. That list of exceptions includes products such as wheat and fertilizers, and seven Russian entities will benefit from this measure.
Meanwhile, European leaders accuse Moscow of shortages and rising food prices. Russian troops block 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain waiting to be exported in the country’s ports.
The delay in the arrival of these grains is causing shortages in countries like Italy and Germany and famine in the countries of North Africa. Given the lack of progress in negotiations to unlock these resources, the head of European diplomacy has stressed that for tens of thousands of people around the world it is “a matter of life or death”.
Negotiations to open shipping corridors and bring 20 million tons of grain from Ukraine continue, although an agreement will only provide partial relief to importing countries. They began in early June between Russia and Ukraine, mediated by Turkey, which said Monday that “an agreement in principle” had been reached, although “all questions” had not been resolved.
Moscow, however, puts the return to Ukrainian maritime exports as an end to the Western powers’ restrictions on “the export of Russian grain”.
Source: La Verdad
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