The European Union will impose new sanctions on Russia, including a ban on imports of Russian metallurgical products and the abolition of Russia’s trade preferences within the WTO.

This is stated in the statement of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on the fourth package of restrictive measures against Russia, which the European Union will introduce tomorrow.

The head of the European Commission noted that Russia has not yet expressed a desire to seriously participate in negotiations on a diplomatic settlement of the military conflict it has resolved, which requires the EU and the G7 to increase economic pressure on the Kremlin.

“Tomorrow we will introduce a fourth package of measures to further isolate Russia and seize the resources it uses to finance this barbaric war,” von der Leyen announced.

According to the statement of the President of the European Commission, the new package of anti-Russian sanctions provides:

depriving imports of goods originating in Russia of most-favored-nation status, leading to tariff increases, and suspending Russia’s membership in leading multilateral financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank;

expanding sanctions against Russian elites close to Putin and their families;

strengthening control over cryptocurrencies so that the Russian state and its elite cannot use cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions;

a ban on the export of any luxury items from EU countries to Russia;

ban on imports into the EU of key metallurgical goods from Russia;

a ban on new investments by European companies in Russia’s energy sector, including technology transfer and financial services for energy exploration and production.

Earlier on Friday, President Joe Biden reportedly signed a decree banning the import of a number of goods from Russia, as well as banning the supply of luxury goods and US dollar banknotes to Russia. 

(C)CENSOR NET 2022