Posted Sep 28, 2022, 6:44 PMUpdated on Sep 28, 2022 at 7:17 PM
After the partial mobilization decreed by Vladimir Putin a week ago, the Russian leader’s threats to use nuclear weapons and the fictitious referendums organized in Ukraine, the European Commission proposed Wednesday to the Twenty-Seven a new set of sanctions against Moscow.
“We do not accept sham referendums and any form of annexation in Ukraine. And we are determined to make the Kremlin pay for this new escalation, ”explained the president of the European executive on Wednesday, during a press briefing with the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell.
Legal basis for capping
Among the flagship measures put forward is the capping of the price of Russian oil. The EU has already decided to ban the purchase of Russian oil and its transport by sea from December 5, recalled Ursula von der Leyen from the headquarters of the Commission. “But we know that some developing countries still need some supplies of Russian oil, at low prices. This is why the G7 has accepted the principle of introducing a cap on the price of Russian oil for third countries,” she added.
“This oil price cap will help reduce Russia’s income on the one hand, and maintain the stability of the global energy market on the other. The President of the Commission announced the forthcoming publication of the legal basis of this “price cap”, but without specifying its value, or even its order of magnitude.
Import bans
The Commission has also proposed new import bans on Russian products which should cut Russia’s income by 7 billion euros a year. The list of products that can no longer be exported to the aggressor Ukraine will grow even longer. “The goal is to deprive the Kremlin military-industrial complex of key technologies. These are, for example, additional aeronautical components or electronic components and specific chemical substances,” explained Ursula von der Leyen.
Member States are also invited to “prohibit their nationals from sitting on the management bodies of Russian public companies”. According to the President of the Commission, “Russia should not benefit from European knowledge and expertise”. The former German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, under very strong pressure from public opinion and political circles in his country, left his position at the oil company Rosneft in the spring and declined an invitation to sit on the supervisory board of Gazprom.
Unanimity
The head of diplomacy, Josep Borrell, for his part detailed a proposal to expand the blacklist of people banned from entering the EU, to frozen assets. To this would be added the pro-Russian leaders of the regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporijjia, involved in the organization of the annexation referendums, as well as military officials and economic actors “who will not necessarily be Russian but who participate circumventing European sanctions”.
The new measures must still be approved unanimously by the Twenty-Seven to be adopted. The ambassadors to the EU will examine them this Friday. It will be interesting to observe the attitude of the Hungarian permanent representative, while the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, publicly called for the abandonment of the sanctions against Moscow, which according to him penalize Europeans without affecting the Russian economy. “Sanctions have an effect, assured Josep Borrell on the contrary, they are important but must be maintained over time and we must ensure that they are not circumvented. »
