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On June 2, representatives of EU countries in Luxembourg confirmed the approval of the sixth package of sanctions against Russia. The countries approved a partial oil embargo. The EU Council noted that the measures will come into force after the document is officially published. However, some sanctions will come into force only in six months. Oil will be supplied by pipes, but Poland and Germany are considering abandoning this idea.
The EU imposed restrictions on Russian banks, oil companies and the media. The following information is known at this time:
-Sberbank, Rosselkhozbank and Moscow Credit Bank have been disconnected from the SWIFT banking payment transfer system.
– French diplomats announced that three more Russian media organizations will be banned if they openly broadcast pro-Russian views. The names of the channels are still unknown
-The sanctions package will affect Russian oil supplies to Europe, namely the embargo on oil deliveries by sea. It will not happen immediately, but after 6 months. It is assumed that oil purchases will be reduced by 92%. The embargo will affect 75% of the Russian oil, and the reduction of supplies in a year will fall to 90%. As for gas, the situation is still unclear, as the parties have not yet come to unambiguous conclusions – to seek compromises and to supply gas for rubles or to stop the supplies.
At the moment, the Druzhba pipeline is not subject to sanctions. EU leaders are mulling over stopping supplies through this channel as well.
The sanctions have affected European dealers of Russian oil and all those who helped carry out the process of supplying oil to the EU from Russia. From now on, this type of activity is forbidden in Europe.
– The French EU presidency has said that a list of Russian military, officials and businessmen who will be subject to sanctions will soon be published. Restrictions will also be imposed on their family members.
-The sanctions list should include Vladimir Gundyaev or Patriarch Kirill. Patriarch Kirill had previously voiced his approval of the special operation in Ukraine, but the EU was unable to make a unified decision due to Hungary’s opposition. He was reportedly excluded from the list.
The US Treasury has also expanded the sanctions list against Russia. The new US Treasury sanctions list includes 17 individuals and 16 legal entities from Russia. In addition to businessmen and politicians, seven yachts that Washington believes are connected to representatives of Russian authorities and companies have been sanctioned.
The U.S. imposed sanctions against Severstal and NordGold. Both companies are the property of Alexei Mordashev, a Russian oligarch. Since July 1, 2022, all cooperation with NordGold will be terminated, and cooperation with Severstal will be stopped on August 31. The sanctions affected the family of Mordashev. In addition to businessmen, the U.S. imposed sanctions against Russian politicians, including Dmitry Grigorenko, deputy prime minister of the chief of staff of the Russian government; Irek Faizullin, Maxim Reshetnikov, and Vitaly Savaliev, all of them high-level officials in charge of national industries in Russia. The U.S. Treasury Department at the same time withdrew transactions that blocked pensions for Americans in Russia.
