Inna Andalitska22:17, 05/07/24

Russian liquefied gas is still freely supplied to Europe, and the EU is beginning to understand that something is wrong here.

The European Union is preparing the 14th package of sanctions against Russia , according to which restrictions will be introduced for the first time against Russian liquefied gas, although there is no direct ban on the import of Russian LNG to the EU. This was reported by the Western mass media, which were able to familiarize themselves with the preliminary draft of the sanctions documents.

Blow on liquefied gas

As Politico writes , the introduction of sanctions on Russian LNG will affect approximately a quarter of Russia’s revenues from the sale of this type of fuel. In particular, the sanctions will prohibit the participation of European companies in future LNG projects in Russia.

“Such a measure limits the expansion of Russian LNG capacity and, thus, limits Russia’s revenues,” the proposal reads.

The publication notes that as of 2023, Russian LNG accounted for approximately 5% of all energy consumption in the EU. However, it provided Moscow with approximately 8 billion euros in annual revenue.

Thanks to new sanctions, including a ban on re-exports, which mostly take place through ports in Spain, Belgium and France, Russia will be forced to ship its LNG to Asian countries via the Arctic sea route, which will require special vessels and additional time. According to experts, this could reduce Russia’s revenues from the sale of LNG by 2 billion euros, which is about 28% of Russia’s profits from this fuel and slightly more than a fifth of its exports to the EU last year.

A blow to Russian propaganda

In the new sanctions package, special attention is paid to limiting the influence of Russian influence measures and disinformation in Europe. According to The Guardian , in particular, it is proposed to impose sanctions on the former Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, accused of treason, who was handed over to Russia in 2022 as part of a prisoner exchange. Medvedchuk “continued to finance and carry out influence operations against political parties and individual politicians in Europe,” according to the text of the sanctions document read by journalists.

In the new package of sanctions, it is proposed to ban the work within the EU for the publication “Voice of Europe”, created by Medvedchuk, as well as the Russian state news agency “RIA Novosti”, the newspapers “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” and “Izvestia”.

It should be noted that Medvedchuk and “Voice of Europe” were already sanctioned in the Czech Republic in March of this year, after a pro-Russian campaign aimed at influencing the results of the European Parliament elections scheduled for June of this year was exposed.

To prevent interference in elections, in particular the proposed and proposed future ban on European political parties, think tanks and media receiving money from Russia and pro-Russian structures. After all, European far-right parties, whose popularity has grown in recent years, have repeatedly been accused of having ties, including financial ones, with Moscow.

Other restrictions

The sanctions package also proposed banning the export of Ukrainian cultural heritage items, such as paintings, religious artifacts and archaeological treasures, if there are suspicions that “goods were illegally taken out of Ukraine” during the war.

Finally, the sanctions draft calls for the same measures to be applied to Belarus as to Russia, as Belarus, which has a union state and customs union with Russia, is currently one of the main routes Russia uses to circumvent EU sanctions.

European officials are expected to discuss the package soon. To enter into force, it must be agreed by all 27 EU countries.

The EU is preparing new sanctions against Russia

As UNIAN reported, on May 6, “Polish Radio” informed that the European Commission had sent the bloc countries a draft of the 14th package of sanctions against Russia, which deals with liquefied gas. The European Commission wants to limit the import of liquefied gas from Russia, but there is no question of a complete embargo.

It was noted that the idea is to ban the transshipment of Russian LNG in European ports, from where it is later distributed around the world. In addition, restrictions will apply to the Arctic and Murmansk LNG projects. The commission also wants to impose sanctions on a dozen ships from the so-called shadow fleet that transport Russian oil in violation of EU restrictions. Now they will be banned from entering European ports.

Today, May 7, Bloomberg wrote that the EU proposed imposing restrictions on 11 Russian vessels that help the aggressor country support the war against Ukraine. Among the vessels that have come under sanctions are four fuel tankers, two oil tankers, two gas storages for PJSC Novatek’s liquefied natural gas transshipment project on the Kamchatka Peninsula, and a cargo vessel. One of them is a tanker called Andromeda Star, which had an accident in the Baltic Sea and had an invalid European insurance.

(C)UNIAN 2024