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The European Union on Monday approved a new package of sanctions against Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine, including trade and financial restrictions and adding more individuals to the community club’s blacklist.
“In consultation with our international partners, has approved a fourth package of sanctions,” the French presidency of the EU Council said on its official Twitter account, referring to the new measures that the EU-27 have coordinated with the G7, the group of the world’s most industrialized countries.
The measures will come into force in the coming hours, once they have been published in the Official Journal of the EU and, according to what diplomatic sources told Efe, among those sanctioned is Roman Abramovich, owner of London’s Chelsea, whom the Premier League has removed from office.
The EU is also going to present a declaration to the World Trade Organization (WTO) with its intention to suspend Russia’s most favored nation clause in its markets and its suspension of Belarus’ application to join the institution.
As announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last Friday, the EU will also work with its international partners to suspend Moscow from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
In addition, imports of key goods in the iron and steel sector from Russia will be vetoed and new European investments in the entire Russian energy sector will be banned, as well as the export of any luxury goods from the EU to Russia.
The EU will also take measures to prevent the Russian state and the country’s elites from being able to use cryptoassets to circumvent the sanctions imposed.
These sanctions already affect Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the military leadership of the Kremlin and, while waiting to know all the details of the new measures, they already affect more than 800 people.
Since the beginning of the invasion, last February 24, the EU countries have also frozen the assets of the Russian and Belarusian central banks and have expelled seven Russian and three Belarusian entities from the SWIFT international communication system.
