Brussels continues to increase the pressure on Russia in the face of Moscow’s dilatory maneuvers to avoid moving towards peace with Ukraine. Less than a month after having approved the seventeenth sanctions package, the European Commission presents this Wednesday with which the Russian economy and its arms industry seek to undermine. As announced by the president of the Community Executive, Ursula von der Leyen, the new sanctioning arsenal will propose that the top at the price of the Russian crude passes from the current 60 dollars per barrel to 45.
The proposal, which is in line with the lowering of this raw material in the international markets-the Brent is quoted only slightly above 60 dollars per barrel-will be on the table at the G-7 meeting of this Sunday. With an unknown: the position that the United States of Donald Trump has.
“Our message is very clear: this war has to end. We need a real fire and Russia still has to reach the negotiating table with a serious proposal. As it still does not show a willingness to achieve peace, we will increase the pressure on Russia with more robust sanctions,” said Von Der read the new package of sanctions, which also include new penalties Ay, among others.
The top of $ 45 on the Russian oil sale price-which in no case can enter the EU or the rest of the G-7, but that continue to buy many other countries, especially in Asia-must be coordinated even in the forum of the seven largest economic powers of the planet, which was the one that began to implement this measure in 2023 under the so-called “coalition for the limitation of prices” of Russian oil. Its objective was, and it is, of course: to reduce the income of Moscow, which destines, to a large extent, to continue feeding its warlike machinery.
The G-7 celebrates, between this Sunday and next Tuesday, its annual summit in Alberta (Canada). Hence the importance of having a proposal on the table that can reach the international appointment on time, although Trump will have to know, which so far.
“Since it was introduced, the price of oil has dropped. When lowering the roof, we adapt it to changing market conditions and restore its effectiveness,” said Von der Leyen.
The now proposed process is the opposite of the one carried out so far: originally, the proposal started from G-7 himself and then reached the EU. That Brussels now take the initiative is a sign of doubts in the commission itself about the possibilities that the Trump administration approves this proposal. Even so, the head of the Community Executive has been said “confident” in being able to agree on this measure with her partners in the Canadian event.
“I assume that we will do it together as G-7: we started it as G-7, we were successful and I would like to continue that measure as G-7,” he said in statements to the press in Brussels, in which he has recalled that the export of oil is, until today, one third of Kremlin’s income.
Siege to the phantom fleet
Brussels now wants the twenty -seven to increase the pressure on another key element of the Kremlin to conserve oil income:
With the new proposal, which includes 77 more ships, the list of punished ships already exceeds 400. This “severely limits the Russian options to export its oil through that ghost fleet,” explained von der Leyen in an appearance next to the high representative for foreign policy, Kaja Kallas.
Although it has not been specifically mentioned, several documents on the proposal to which the country has had access indicates that the new package also includes, for the first time, the captain of one of those illegal oil tankers, of Indian nationality, in its blacklist. With this, Brussels hopes to reinforce the one who continues to participate in these Russian illegal activities, according to the draft consulted.
The sanctions, as they have already made previous packages that seek to attack the fleet with which Russia evades the sanctions that weigh on their oil, also point to companies based in third countries: United Arab Emirates, Mauricio and Hong Kong, among others. Brussels also wants to prohibit the importation of refined products based on Russian crude, to prevent a drop of oil from Russia from reaching the EU “through the back door,” said Von der Leyen.
Also against the Nord Stream
In the same sense, another proposal included in the draft is going to sanction an entity involved in the Russian liquefied gas (LNG) sector, within the framework of the commission’s plans in that sense, and as the president of the European Commission had advanced, the decimoctavo package of sanctions also raises a “prohibition of transactions” on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines Idea is “to prevent the resumption of natural gas supply through these gas pipelines” to stop their “income generation potential” in the future, says Brussels. “There can be no return to the past,” said Von der Leyen.
The eighteenth package also puts the Russian financial sector in its sights: Brussels wants to transform the current veto into a “total transactions prohibition.” One more step in the exclusion of Russia of the International Payment System, which is completed with the veto to 22 other Russian banks.
To complete the financial punishment, Brussels proposes to extend the prohibition of transactions to banks from third countries that finance trade with Moscow, thus allowing the evasion of European sanctions. With the same objective, the Commission wants to sanction the Sovereign Fund Russian Fund for Direct Investment and all its subsidiaries, to “limit an important project of financing of projects to modernize the Russian economy and reinforce its industrial base”.
In the new package, which still has to be analyzed by the Member States, the Commission also wants to expand exports prohibitions for a value of more than 2.5 billion euros and that will allow, according to Von der Leyen, “deprive the Russian economy of critical technology and industrial goods.” In the sight of Brussels are, among others, machinery, metals, plastics and chemicals, as well as a higher restriction on the export of dual use goods and technologies that can end up helping the construction of Russian drones or missiles.
More than 2,500 sanctioned
If the package goes ahead, it will also achieve a symbolic brand: if all the proposals are approved, the list of individuals sanctioned since the beginning of the Russian war in Ukraine will exceed 2,500. It also increases the pressure on one of Moscow’s main allies – Bielorruse – by sanctioning four companies in that country active in the military and defensive sectors, according to the draft. The idea is to expand the current embargo of arms, which until now only covers EU exports to Minsk, to also include weapons imports from that Kremlin satellite country to the European bloc.
“The sanctions work,” Kallas stressed. “Russia wants to make us believe that war can continue forever, but it is not true. It has lost tens of billions in oil revenue, its economy is being contracting and its GDP has fallen (…). Each sanction weakens the Russian ability to fight.”
