EU prepares new sanctions on oil of more Russian banks

“We are working on the sixth package of sanctions that aims to remove even more (Russian) banks from the SWIFT system, will list disinformation actors and hit oil imports“Wrote in a Twitter post Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief.

According to European officials, the latest round of sanctions will also affect Sberbank SBER.MM, Russia’s main lender, adding it to the list of some banks that have already been excluded from the SWIFT system, which facilitates international payments.

Mr Borrell said the proposed measures against Russia, which attacked Ukraine on February 24, would be submitted to the 27 EU member states for approval.

Officials said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to outline the new sanctions proposed Wednesday and that they would include a ban on Russian oil imports by the end of this year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced to the West on Tuesday that he could suspend exports and disregard the agreements in response to the burden of sanctions imposed by the EU and the United States.

An embargo on Russian oil would deprive Moscow of a major source of revenue, but reaching an agreement on the measure has divided European bloc countries, which provide 26 percent of Russia’s oil imports.

Hungary and Germany were among the countries that had reserves against an oil embargo. Among their concerns was that rising energy prices would hurt EU economies, which are already facing inflation.

Resistance to a ban on oil imports waned last week with the reaching of an agreement that would offer exemptions for Slovakia and Hungary, diplomats told the Reuters news agency, two countries heavily dependent on Russian crude oil.

According to the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research, EU countries have paid more than $ 47.43 billion to Russia for gas and oil since it launched the attack on Ukraine./VOA

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