BRUSSELS (Axios) — The European Commission announced Tuesday its latest salvo of sanctions on Russia, taking aim at the Kremlin’s energy exports, infrastructure and financial institutions.
The measures include proposals to lower the oil price cap from $60 to $45 per barrel and ban the use of the Nord Stream pipelines to funnel gas between Russia and Germany.
A further 22 Russian banks will also be cut off from the SWIFT international banking system, with the current, partial prohibition on Russians banks broadened to a “full transaction ban,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
Calling the sanctions “robust” and “hard-biting,” von der Leyen claimed that the Russian economy was already buckling under the pressure of the EU’s past measures and the new package would pummel it further.
“Russia continues to bring death and destruction to Ukraine,” she said at a joint press conference with the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas. “Our message is clear: This war must end.”
Brussels has sought to build support in Washington for punishing new measures to empty Moscow’s war chest. The newest package of sanctions come ahead of a G7 summit in Alberta, Canada this weekend, with Ukraine invited to take part, where the new, reduced oil price cap will be discussed, as the EU executive cannot unilaterally lower it.
EU member countries are expected to sign off on the Commission’s latest sanctions proposal swiftly, with a deal expected before the end of this month.
Von der Leyen also said that a ban on imports of Russian crude oil would be extended to cover oil products refined from it in third countries — preventing what she called imports “through the back door.” And the EU will now consider another 77 vessels to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” that is barred from entering European ports.
The Commission is also proposing to sanction the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Moscow’s sovereign wealth fund, to prevent it from funding projects to “modernize the Russian economy,” von der Leyen said.
A €2.5 billion export ban will apply to machinery, metals, plastics and chemicals that are used as industrial raw materials. It will also cover so-called dual-use technology need to make drones, missiles and other weapons system. This would ensure that “Russia does not find ways to modernize its weapons with European technologies,” she added.
Von der Leyen said the latest, 18th package of EU sanctions against Russia would be “aligned” with further measures being discussed in the United States.