The Council of the European Union adopted a new, 14th package of sanctions against Russia due to its military actions in Ukraine.
As noted, these measures are designed to target high-value sectors of the Russian economy, like energy, finance and trade, and make it ever more difficult to circumvent EU sanctions.
«Our sanctions have already significantly weakened the Russian economy and prevented Putin from accomplishing his plans to destroy Ukraine, although he still continues the illegal aggression targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. The 14th package of sanctions demonstrates our unity in supporting Ukraine and seeking to limit Russia’s criminal activities against Ukrainians, including efforts to circumvent EU measures,» Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said.
The new package of sanctions includes:
- Restrictive measures on additional 116 individuals and entities;
- Restrictions on the transit of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) through European ports;
- Ban on new investments, as well as the provision of goods, technology and services for the completion of LNG projects under construction, such as Arctic LNG 2 and Murmansk LNG;
- Ban on the use of the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), a specialised financial messaging service developed by the Central Bank of Russia. EU entities operating outside of Russia will be forbidden from connecting to the SPFS or equivalent specialised financial messaging services. The EU Council also decided that political parties and foundations, non-governmental organisations, including think tanks, or media service providers in the EU, will no longer be allowed to accept funding coming from the Russian state and its proxies.
- Restrictions against 27 vessels from Russia’s «dark fleet»;
- Ban on landing, take off or flying over the EU territory of aircraft that perform private flights ordered by individuals and legal entities from Russia;
The names of the companies are not indicated in the document, but it is reported that the relevant legal acts will soon be published in the Official Journal of the EU;
Export restrictions on 61 companies (some of them from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and the UAE) that are involved in circumventing trade restrictions and helping Russia with the supply of dual-use goods and technologies.
- Ban on the supply of manganese ore and compounds of rare earth elements, plastics, excavating machinery, monitors and electrical equipment to the Russian Federation;
- Restrictions on helium imports from Russia.
The package also includes measures to allow EU operators to claim compensation from damages caused by Russian companies due to sanctions implementation and expropriation.
Lastly, it will be forbidden to purchase, import, transfer or export Ukrainian cultural property goods and other goods of archaeological, historical, cultural, rare scientific or religious importance, where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the goods have been unlawfully removed from Ukraine.
