EU finalizes sanctions against the circle of oligarchs closest to the Kremlin

The European Union (EU) is in the final stages of preparing, together with other international partners, a new series of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which will target a series of oligarchs who have financially supported the Russian regime and they are close to their president, Vladimir Putin, who was already punished with sanctions last Friday.

The new sanctions, expected imminently in coordination with other Western partners, come on top of those adopted in record time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last Thursday, which have already severely hit the economy and finances of Moscow and its trade flows.

The leaders of the European institutions and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will participate this afternoon in a videoconference with the heads of state and/or government of Germany, France, Canada, the United States, Italy, Japan, Poland and Romania to continue coordination on sanctions against Moscow.

Even Switzerland, traditionally neutral, has announced this Monday that it has decided to apply “fully” the EU sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine and will freeze the Russian funds involved and that are in the Swiss financial system.

Although the identities of the oligarchs who will enter the community sanctioned list are not yet known, European sources defend that it will be a “widely coordinated” list, which resembles “a ‘who’s who’ of the inner circle of oligarchs who have been financially supporting the regime.

This is a “significant” number of oligarchs who will be subjected to an asset freeze and a travel ban to the EU and the rest of the territories with which Brussels coordinates in these sanctions.

The EU is especially considering aligning itself on these sanctions with the United Kingdom and also has ongoing contacts with Switzerland to ensure that they also join these new measures, according to community sources.

sanctions on Belarus

In the next few hours, the exact scope of the new battery of sanctions against Belarus, the last dictatorship in Europe, which has welcomed more than 30,000 Russian soldiers and military equipment for joint exercises that have served Moscow, is also expected to be made public. to cross the southern border of that country and attack Ukraine.

European sources explain that the new measures fill “some gaps” identified after the first sanctions against this country and will limit exports from there of mineral fuels, tobacco, wood, cement, iron, steel and potash, as well as the export to Belarus of dual-use products, that is, for purposes that can be civil or military.

The EU is also studying whether it can replicate in Belarus the same measures that it has already adopted against the Central Bank of Russia in terms of paralyzing its transactions, and also plans to include oligarchs from the entourage of the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, to its list. of sanctions.

European sources believe that these measures will not be “the end of support for Ukraine” and that, without crossing “some clear lines” such as sending personnel to the field, the EU will continue “supporting the Ukrainian people and doing everything imaginable within our ability to offer that support.”

“Within those constraints, our imagination should know no bounds as to how we can provide practical support to the people of Ukraine to prevail in this existential fight, which is also a fight for the European security architecture and our commitment to democracy.” , they affirmed.