The European Union moved forward with a new batch of sanctions against Russia, this time also targeting third parties and countries that help Moscow circumvent existing sanctions to buy equipment or sell fossil fuels.
This package is the 20th since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. It is aimed at Russia but also includes provisions for Belarus, Russia’s ally in the war. The member states approved the European Commission’s package.
The bulk of the sanctions is against Russia’s energy sector, with provisions also for financial and trade services, the military industry and additional selected people. This time, the Commission also identified companies and locations outside Russia that continued to operate in Russia, often selling European materials in violation of sanctions.
“For the first time, we are activating our anti-circumvention instrument to block exports of critical EU goods to a third country used to undermine our measures,” said Maria Luisa Albuquerque, Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investments Union.
In particular, the Karimun Oil Terminal in Indonesia and four banks in Kyrgyzstan, Laos, and Azerbaijan have been sanctioned for their lax control over Russian assets.
However, the main issue addressed is Russia’s shadow fleet, which Moscow uses to transport fossil fuels and evade sanctions. In this new round of sanctions, the EU added 42 vessels to the list of the fleet’s members, bringing the total to 632. Vessels on this list can’t port in the EU nor receive assistance. The Commission also stressed that 11 vessels were removed from the list, meaning that, after cooperation with authorities, the status of the vessels can be reversed. To prevent the further growth of this already vast fleet, the sanctions include a ban on EU tanker sales. The new rules provide an exit clause for those vessels for faster decommissioning from the shadow fleet. Linked with this, the EU is setting up a Maritime Services Ban to outright forbid the transportation of Russian oil and other oil products.
This round of sanctions also includes, for the first time, the activation of the anti-circumvention tool to punish those who help Russia circumvent sanctions to sell tools and materials already under sanction. This is the first time the tool has been activated against Kyrgyzstan, after its government repeatedly failed to prevent the sale, supply, transfer, or export of machine tools and telecommunications equipment manufactured in the EU to Russia.
