The EU approves its fifth sanctions package. Coal embargo, blocked banks. Putin’s daughters blacklisted

The fifth package of EU sanctions against Russia was finally approved. Yesterday, initial approval for further restrictions was given by the ambassadors of 27 member states. The sanctions will come into force with their publication in the EU’s Official Journal, which is to take place within several hours, reports the Radio Information Agency.

The Union approves sanctions. There will be an embargo on Russian coal

The restrictions are mainly an embargo on imports of Russian coal, which will come into force in four months. The restrictions also apply to transport, trade and banks. They also apply to the ban on participation in tenders by EU companies from Russia. The EU also extended the “black list” of people covered by the restrictions with new names. More than 200 people will be blacklisted with a ban on entry to the EU and blocked assets, including representatives of the Russian president’s administration, oligarchs, such as the president of Sberbank German Gref Oleg Deripaska, who was once called the king of aluminum, or Mosze Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, which has shares in Russia’s largest fertilizer company.

We wrote more about Deripaska, who earns money on business in Poland, here:

The Union has also started hitting families – the list includes two adult daughters of Vladimir Putin, there are also several sons of oligarchs, wives, sisters and mother-in-law of representatives of the authorities.

More Russian banks cut off from the transaction

In addition to the coal embargo, transactions with four Russian banks, which account for 23 percent of the banking system in Russia, will be banned. Weapons deliveries will be fully embargoed. European ports will also be blocked for Russian ships – excluding those with food. Moreover, Russian road hauliers will not enter the territory of the EU.

The EU also imposes further restrictions on exports. This time, they will include EUR 10 billion in quantum computers and advanced semiconductors. Meanwhile, imports from Russia, estimated at over EUR 5 billion, will be suspended, including wood, cement, alcohol, seafood and rubber products. Russian companies will not be able to participate in tenders in EU countries.

The EU is hitting Russia. “We keep unity”

The Polish ambassador to the Union, Andrzej Sadoś, referred to the restrictions on Russia. “There is an assurance from the European Commission and the vast majority of Member States to start work on imposing sanctions on imports of crude oil, gas and fuel for nuclear power plants” – he said.

He admitted that Poland is not satisfied with the progress of work on the restrictions. – We believe that we should go further with very painful sanctions, but of course it is important that we maintain the unity of 27 member states – said Ambassador Andrzej Sadoś.