EU Sanctions Against Russia Are Extended Until the End of July

On Friday, the Council of the European Union (EU) decided to extend until July 31 the economic sanctions against Russia whose validity period was to end on January 31.

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First introduced in 2014 in retaliation for Russian actions in Crimea, the EU sanctions have been significantly expanded since Feb. 2022, when the Russian military operation in Ukraine began.

Currently, the European Union sanctions include restrictions on trade, finance, technology, industry, transportation, and luxury items.

They also cover the ban on importing or transferring seaborne crude oil and certain petroleum products, the removal of some Russian banks from the Swift payment system, and the suspension of operating licenses for Russian-backed media.

More specifically, in the nine rounds of sanctions approved since February 2022, the EU Council has frozen the reserves of the Russian Central Bank and disconnected ten banks from the Swift system, including Sberbank, the largest Russian bank.

Besides closing EU airspace and seaports to Russian companies, the EU sanctions include an embargo on exports of dual-use goods, which are items having both commercial and military or proliferation applications.

In addition, Brussels has already started contacts with European governments to prepare the tenth package of sanctions since Poland and the Baltic countries demand an embargo on the importation of Russian gas and diamonds.