Europe approves eighth package of anti-Russian sanctions

The European Union (EU) has approved the eighth package of anti-Russian sanctions in an effort to punish Moscow for the war in Ukraine.
These new sanctions introduce a cap on prices for Russian oil, as well as expand imports and exports of goods and services to and from Russia, as stated in the announcement published on the website of the European Commission on Thursday, 6 October.
New sanctions prohibit the transportation of Russian oil to third countries through the territory of the EU starting with December 2022 and the transportation of Russian petrol products starting with February 2023. Restrictions also extend to the exports of financial and other services related to transport services.

On top of that the EU has also agreed on a price cap for Russian oil.

If Russian oil and petrol products are bought at cheaper prices, European operators will be allowed to transport them. The price itself will be set separately.
The eight package of sanction also includes the ban on imports of Russian goods worth a total of EUR 7 billion. It is therefore prohibited to import from Russia steel products, equipment, vehicles, clothes, leather, ceramics, certain chemical products, and non-gold jewellery.
As for exports – exports of certain electrical appliances, technical items, chemical substances, as well as goods used in the aviation sector, will be banned.

New sanctions also bans EU citizens from holding posts in governing bodies of certain state-owned enterprises in Russia.

Cooperation with Russian shipping register is also prohibited, as is the provision of financial services, consultations in the IT sector as certain other business services to Russia.
The package of sanctions also expands the range of services that are not allowed to be provided tot he Russian government and Russian-based legal persons.
Among those services are IT consultations, legal consultations, architecture and engineering services.

Russian citizens will not be allowed to own crypto currency accounts in the European Union regardless of the amount of crypto held.

Brussels has also introduced a new criterion for private and legal persons to be added to the list of sanctions. Now restrictions will be allowed to be imposed upon those who assist in circumventing anti-Russian sanctions.
Also read: Europe agrees on eighth package of anti-Russian sanctions