Filenews 9 March 2022
New names of 160 Russian officials and oligarchs involved in actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine are added to the EU's blacklist of restrictive measures, decided today Wednesday by the 27 EU countries.
In particular, the new sanctions list includes the names of 14 Russian oligarchs and businessmen involved in key economic sectors, providing an important source of revenue to the Russian Federation - particularly in the metallurgy, agriculture, pharmaceutical, telecommunications and digital industries, as well as members of their families. It also includes 146 members of the Council of the Russian Federation, who ratified the government decisions of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between the Russian Federation and the People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
In total, EU restrictive measures now apply to a total of 862 natural persons and 53 entities.
In addition, EU member states agreed to adopt further targeted sanctions against Russia and Belarus in response to its involvement in the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
More specifically for Belarus, the agreed measures concern the following:
• Restriction of the provision of SWIFT services to Belagroprombank, Bank Dabrabyt and the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus, as well as to their subsidiaries in Belarus.
• Banning transactions with the Central Bank of Belarus related to the management of reserves or assets and the provision of public funding for trade and investment in Belarus.
• A ban on the listing and provision of services in relation to shares of Belarusian state entities on EU trading venues as of 12 April 2022.
• Significant restriction of financial inflows from Belarus to the EU, prohibiting the taking of deposits of more than 100,000 euros by nationals or residents of Belarus, the holding of accounts of Belarusian customers from the central securities depositories of the EU, as well as the sale of euro securities to Belarusian customers.
• Ban on the supply of euro banknotes in Belarus.
For Russia, new restrictions are introduced on exports of marine navigation technology and radiocommunications, the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping is added to the list of state-owned enterprises subject to financing restrictions and a provision for prior exchange of information on exports of maritime safety equipment is introduced.
In addition, the exemption for accepting deposits of more than €100,000 in EU banks to Swiss and EEA nationals is extended.
Finally, the EU confirmed the common understanding that loans and credit can be provided by any means necessary, including crypto assets, as well as further clarified the concept of 'mobile securities', in order to clearly include crypto assets and thus ensure the correct application of the restrictions in place.
According to the European Commission, the above measures ensure more effectively that Russian sanctions cannot be circumvented, including through Belarus.
ANA-MPA
