The European Union on Wednesday agreed to impose additional sanctions on Russia and Belarus. Among others, three large Belarusian banks are excluded from the international payment system Swift.
According to the EU, Belarus is supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, because the attack is also taking place from Belarusian territory. Residents of Belarus can no longer withdraw unlimited money from foreign bank accounts with more than 100,000 euros. In this way, the EU wants to throttle the influx of money to the country.
Sanctions against Russia are further tightened. Another 160 new individuals, including prominent businessmen and 14 Russian oligarchs, will be added to the sanctions list.
In total, the EU has now imposed sanctions on 862 individuals and 53 organisations. EU leaders will discuss additional measures against individuals and banks on Thursday, Reuters news agency reported.
The new sanctions against Russia also affect international shipping. The European Union prohibits, among other things, the export of maritime navigation and radio communications technology to Russian customers. Because every seagoing vessel – from dredgers to superyachts – must have such equipment on board, this sanction amounts to a total ban on the sale of ships, according to a European Commission spokesman. Leasing to Russian customers is also prohibited. It does not matter whether a ship will sail under the Russian flag or under the flag of popular ‘flag countries’ such as Cyprus and the Bahamas.
The EU is also announcing stricter rules for cryptocurrency transactions to prevent companies from continuing to trade in that way to evade sanctions. The new sanctions have been coordinated with the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Not all countries within the EU have the same opinion about the measures. Bloomberg news agency reported on Wednesday that Germany is obstructing the exclusion of Russian banks from the payment system Swift.
Documents that Bloomberg saw show that Germany is urging caution on sanctions so as not to jeopardize Russia’s gas and oil supplies. But calls for tougher sanctions are getting louder – especially in Eastern European countries.
The rate of the Russian ruble opened again 11 percent lower on Wednesday and has lost 42 percent of its value in two weeks. President Putin will hold talks with his government on Thursday about the impact of the economic sanctions.
Banks and Sanctions page E4-5
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of March 10, 2022