The European Union blocks gold imports from Russia in a new round of sanctions

The European Union (EU) on Thursday adopted new sanctions against Moscow for the war in Ukraine which include the veto imports of Russian goldincluding jewelry, and the freezing of the assets of Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank.

In addition to financial sanctions, the European Council decided to list additional persons and entities and strengthen reporting obligations, placing the burden of declaring assets to sanctioned persons to facilitate their freezing in the EU, the Council said in a statement.

The aim is “to strengthen the existing economic sanctions against Russia, perfect their implementation and strengthen their effectiveness”.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Thursday appreciated the support of the 27 for the new sanctions.

“The member states have reached an agreement on strengthened and prolonged European sanctions against the Kremlin. This sends a strong signal to Moscow: we will maintain the pressure as long as necessary,” said the head of the blockade executive through his Twitter account.

For his part, the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, stressed that “today we are taking another important step to reduce Russia’s ability to continue and finance its war of aggression against Ukraine. We are effectively banning Russia’s most important export after energy: gold Russian”.

The EU is also “extending the exemption from agricultural commodity transactions and the transfer of oil to third countries”, as the Twenty-Seven are committed to “ensuring that we can overcome the global food crisis that is coming,” said Borrell.

“It is up to Russia to stop bombing Ukraine’s fields and silos and stop blocking the Black Sea ports,” he added.

Thursday’s package introduces a new ban on buying, importing or transferring gold, directly or indirectly, if it comes from Russia and has subsequently been exported from Russia to the EU or any other third country.

Measures

this prohibition also covers jewelry.

At the same time expands the list of checked itemswhich can contribute to Russia’s military and technological enhancement or to the development of its defense and security sector, thereby strengthening export controls on advanced and dual-use technologies.

The new measures also extend the current ban on access to ports to prevent the evasion of sanctions and broaden the scope of the veto to accept deposits to include those of legal persons, entities and bodies established in third countries and owned by the majority. of Russian citizens or individuals residing in Russia.

The acceptance of deposits for non-prohibited cross-border exchanges will be subject to the prior authorization of the competent national authorities.

other changes

The EU is also introducing a number of clarifications to existing measures in various sectors, such as public procurement, aviation and justice.

For instance, technical assistance to Russia for aviation goods and technology will be allowed when necessary to safeguard the work of defining industrial technical standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization and the ban on conducting transactions with Russian public entities will be slightly reduced.

Furthermore, in order to avoid possible negative consequences for food and energy security, the EU has decided to extend the exemption from the ban on transactions with certain state entities for agricultural products and the transport of oil to third countries.

Agreement on the new sanctions package came five days after the European Commission presented the proposal.

More than a thousand sanctioned

The new package adds 50 people to the sanctioned list who are barred from entering the EU and whose properties and assets have been frozen in the bloc’s countries, including “politicians, military leaders, oligarchs and propagandists”.

The list already exceeds a thousand people, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov or former Chelsea president Roman Abramovich.

The EU will veto the import of Russian coal from August and before the end of the year to the import of oil it receives by sea, which is 90% of everything it buys from Moscow.

Other sanctions passed since February 24, the day Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, include a ban on Russian state media broadcasting in the EU, such as Russia today or Sputnikthe closure of European airspace to Russian airlines and a ban on the export of dual-use technology.

The EU has also unified the calendar of all sanction packages approved so far during the nearly five-month war, so that its extension will be revised in January 2023.

Source: EFE

CB