EU chief urges bloc members to sanction Russia’s LNG exports

BRUSSELS — The European Union ought to slap new sanctions on Russia’s exports of liquefied pure gasoline, its shadow fleet of growing old oil tankers and main vitality corporations over its conflict on Ukraine, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned on Friday.

“It’s time to flip off the faucet” on LNG, von der Leyen mentioned in a video assertion outlining her fee’s new sanctions proposals. They should be endorsed by the 27 EU international locations earlier than they will enter drive.

“I now name on member states to rapidly endorse these new sanctions. We would like Russia to go away the battlefield and are available to the negotiation desk, and that is the way in which to offer peace an actual likelihood,” she mentioned.

The bloc has already agreed on 18 packages of sanctions towards Russia, however getting ultimate settlement on who and what to focus on can take weeks.

Greater than 2,500 “entities” together with banks, ministries, vitality corporations and officers have already been hit.

The officers embrace President Vladimir Putin and his associates, scores of Russian lawmakers and a number of other oligarchs. Journey bans and asset freezes are the commonest measures.

Vitality income is the linchpin of Russia’s financial system, permitting Putin to pour cash into the armed forces with out worsening inflation for on a regular basis folks and avoiding a forex collapse.

Von der Leyen insisted that EU sanctions are having an affect. “Russia’s overheated conflict financial system is coming to its restrict,” she mentioned, noting specifically fixed excessive inflation in Russia.

The fee proposed concentrating on 118 further vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet of ships transporting oil, bringing the overall hit to over 560.

“Main vitality buying and selling corporations Rosneft and Gazprom Neft will now be on a full transaction ban, and different corporations can even come below an asset freeze” if the measures are endorsed, the top of the EU’s government department additionally mentioned.

A part of the plan can be to go “after those that gasoline Russia’s conflict by buying oil in breach of the sanctions,” she mentioned. Von der Leyen mentioned that the fee desires to “goal refineries, oil merchants, petrochemical corporations and third international locations together with China.”

The sanctions would additionally embrace export restrictions on “gadgets and applied sciences” that can be utilized on the battlefield. An extra 45 corporations in Russia and elsewhere can be hit, for “offering direct or oblique help to the Russian navy industrial complicated,” the fee president mentioned.