Europe presents fourth stage of sanctions against Russia

On Monday, 14 March, the European Union passed the fourth stage of sanctions against Russia for attacking Ukraine, as announced by France.
As mentioned in the announcement posted on Twitter, ambassadors of 27 EU member states have approved sanctions against people and companies «involved in the attack on Ukraine».
Details will be published once new sanctions have been published in the official EU journal, as confirmed by France, adding that the new package of sanctions was developed in coordination with western partners.
EU diplomats have also approved an announcement for the World Trade Organisation to cancel Russia’s «most favoured country» status in the organisation.
Taking away this status may lead to application of a tariff on Russian export goods.
According to sources, the fourth stage of sanctions will apply to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and other oligarchs, as well as major Russian companies like Rosneft, Transneft and Gazpromneft.
British soccer club Chelsea owner Abramovich and other Russian oligarchs will be denied entry to the EU and all of their owned assets in Europe will be frozen.
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For Rosneft, Transneft and Gazpromneft, which are already under sanctions, measures will be tightened. However, countries will not be prohibited from purchasing oil from them, sources say.
These companies are already under EU restrictions in relation to lending and debt financing.
New sanctions provide for adopting investment bans for Rosneft, Transneft and Gazpromneft. This will freeze financing from EU sources for new production and research projects.
Sanctions will not prohibit EU countries and companies from purchasing oil from them, sources say.
High representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell reported on Monday that the fourth package of sanctions will be aimed at Russia’s trade, access to markets, participation in international financial institutes, as well as exports of luxurious goods. Sanctions are especially aimed at steel, coal and energy sectors.
«This will be another major blow to the economic and logistic base upon which the Kremlin is building the invasion and taking the resources to finance it,» Borrel said.