New EU sanctions against Russia will be aimed at tightening existing restrictions and expanding blacklists. There will be no more sanctions against entire sectors of the Russian economy, reports the Financial Times, citing sources among officials who are working on the next sanctions package.
The new sanctions will, in particular, be aimed at "closing loopholes" to circumvent the measures already introduced earlier, sources say.
Restrictions against sectors of the economy not affected by sanctions will not be introduced, because other EU countries may suffer from this. “We are finished. If we introduce more sanctions, there will be more exceptions than measures,” one of the newspaper’s interlocutors said.
Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU has imposed 10 packages of sanctions on Russia, banning more than 135 billion euros worth of bilateral trade flows. This includes almost all oil imports from Russia, as well as the export of many technologies, machinery and electronic goods. About 21.5 billion euros worth of assets belonging to individuals and legal entities under sanctions were frozen, as well as 300 billion euros of Kremlin money.