“Vladyslav Vlasyuk, the President’s authorized adviser on sanctions policy, held a briefing for the heads of diplomatic institutions and representatives of the embassies of the European Union countries in Ukraine, devoted to the analysis of the impact of sanctions on the Russian Federation and ways to strengthen restrictions.”, — write: www.president.gov.ua
Vladyslav Vlasyuk, the President’s authorized adviser on sanctions policy, held a briefing for the heads of diplomatic institutions and representatives of the embassies of the European Union countries in Ukraine, devoted to the analysis of the impact of sanctions on the Russian Federation and ways to strengthen restrictions.
“Russia is able to support military aggression against Ukraine thanks to high export revenues. Strengthening the sanctions regime is crucial for depriving the Russian Federation of funds to finance the war,” he emphasized.
The plenipotentiary adviser emphasized that at the same time, the Russian economy, burdened by the costs of the war, is becoming more vulnerable. According to him, this situation should be used and the sanctions pressure should be significantly increased.
In particular, it is necessary to reduce Russia’s energy revenues, since the price cap on Russian oil does not work. 92% of the supply of crude oil from the Russian Federation is currently carried out by the shadow fleet. The main problem is the slow identification of the relevant vessels and the imposition of sanctions on them.
Vladyslav Vlasyuk also recalled that this month there was a sharp reduction in production at the Arctic LNG 2 project, which is key in the aggressor’s plans to expand exports of liquefied natural gas and develop the Northern Sea Route.
At the same time, the EU remains the largest buyer of Russian LNG. Therefore, it is important that the European Union extends its sanctions to those vessels from which Russia seeks to create a shadow fleet for transporting fuel, and in the near future – to completely ban the export of Russian liquefied natural gas.
Also, the EU is still very dependent on Russian nuclear fuel.
In addition, it is necessary to ban the import of Russian metals, as this is another important source of income for the Russian Federation.
Despite the complete ban on the export of dual-purpose goods and technologies to Russia, the aggressor state still manages to buy them for the needs of its military industry, using complex supply chains involving third countries. It is necessary to introduce a ban on the re-export of minerals to Russia, comprehensive sanctions against all companies involved in the supply of critical components, equipment and resources to the Russian Federation.
Due to financial sanctions, Russia now relies on cryptocurrency payment methods. Accordingly, the EU should join the already introduced US sanctions against certain Russian fintech companies and work together to expand restrictions on the relevant sector of the Russian Federation. In addition, European financial institutions that remain on the Russian market should leave it as soon as possible.
“The EU should consider supplementing large sanctions packages with regular smaller packages aimed at organizations, individuals, etc. In particular, using the list prepared by Ukraine of the 100 largest individuals and legal entities that pose a threat to international security due to their involvement in Russian aggression against our country,” noted Vladyslav Vlasyuk.
