BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - On the eve of the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union announced a massive sanctions package targeting Russian economy.
The 16th EU sanctions package targets systemically important sectors of the Russian economy such as energy, trade, transport, infrastructure, and financial services.
It also adds further measures aimed at tackling circumvention. To prevent the risk of EU sanctions being bypassed, certain provisions of this package are now also mirrored in the Belarus sanctions regime. The EU has in addition updated and strengthened its sanctions regimes concerning the Russian-controlled Ukrainian areas of Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.
The latest round of Russia sanctions package targets 74 additional vessels, bringing the total number of listed vessels to 153. These vessels are part of the shadow fleet or contributed to Russia's energy revenues.
The measures add a new listing criterion, targeting those who support the operations of unsafe oil tankers.
The package imposes targeted export restrictions on 53 new companies supporting Russia's military-industrial complex or engaged in sanctions circumvention. This includes 34 companies in countries other than Russia.
The European Union blacklisted 35 additional companies and 48 individuals, such as those supporting the Russian military complex, active in sanctions circumvention, Russian crypto assets exchanges and in the maritime sector.
The 16th package also adds another new criterion for listing individuals and entities that are part of Russia's military and industrial complex, support it, or benefit from it.
EU has banned imports of primary aluminium from Russia.
Dual-use export restrictions have been extended to additional items to cut Russia's access to key technologies it has been using on the battlefield. They include dual-use chemical precursors to produce chloropicrin and other riot control agents used as chemical weapons by Russia, software related to Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine tools used to manufacture weapons, and video-game controllers used by the Russian army to pilot drones on the battlefield.
Also, additional export restrictions have been introduced on industrial goods, specifically targeting minerals, chemicals, steel, glass materials, and fireworks, with special military significance.
The EU announced that it has decided to completely prohibit temporary storage or the placement under free zone procedures of Russian crude oil or petroleum products in EU ports, which was until now allowed, if the oil complied with the price cap and went to a third country.
The package extends the prohibition to provide goods, technology and services for the completion of Russian LNG projects to also apply to crude oil projects in Russia, such as the Vostok oil project.
The existing software ban has been extended to restrict the export, supply or provision of oil and gas exploration software to Russia.
The European Uno has extended the flight ban to third-country carriers conducting domestic flights within Russia or supplying aviation goods to Russian airlines. Blacklisted airlines will not be allowed to fly to the EU.
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