European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday (4) that the European Union (EU) wants to impose a phased embargo on oil and derivatives purchased from Russia in response to the war in Ukraine.
“Over a six-month period, we will gradually give up the supply of oil to Russia, and by the end of the year the supply of oil products,” he told lawmakers in Strasbourg.
Von der Leyen acknowledged that the task “will not be easy. Some member states are heavily dependent on Russian oil. But we need to work on it.”
He added that the ban is intended to cover all Russian oil “transported by sea and pipeline, crude and refined”.
In addition, the EU proposes to close the European space to “the three big Russian state broadcasters”.
“We will no longer allow them to distribute their content in the EU in any way via cable, satellite, internet or smartphone apps,” he said.
The broadcasters were described as “speakers who aggressively amplify Putin’s lies and propaganda (Vladimir)”. We should no longer give them a stage to spread these lies.
In his speech, von der Leyen announced that the EU’s new sanctions package aims to include three Russian banks, including the country’s largest, Sberbank.
The Germans said that hitting “banks of fundamental systemic importance to the Russian financial system” would strengthen Russia’s “complete isolation” and weaken its ability to finance the war in Ukraine.
As a result of EU sanctions, seven Russian financial institutions have already been removed from the SWIFT system, an interbank messaging mechanism that allows for international transfer and payment orders.
Von der Leyen thus outlined the sixth package of sanctions against Russia for the war in Ukraine, which includes an extensive list of persons to be sanctioned, including the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.
According to documents available to AFP, Kirill is described in Ukraine as “who has become a longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin and one of the main supporters of military aggression”.
Patriarch Kirill is the main leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has 150 million followers worldwide.
source: Noticias
