Finally, there will be a first EU strike against Russia’s energy sector. But as an aside, the community block left the first seams in unit 27 in the air. The fifth package of sanctions, which includes a ban on Russian coal imports, was approved by the ambassadors of the community partners on Thursday after two days of intense debate.
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According to diplomatic sources, the discussion was eminently political in nature and managed to avoid Hungary’s reluctance to impose an energy embargo on Russia for the time being. But Budapest, a capital in tune with the Kremlin, has already warned that any further step that consists of shutting off Russia’s oil or gas tap will be far more complicated; even a red line not ready to be crossed. Other countries such as Germany and Austria have also expressed concerns about immediately addressing the import of these two fuels, which represent the true economic manna of the Vladimir Putin regime.
Negotiations have also been delayed due to technical components and fine-tuning of measures that the 27 capitals have had little time to review, diplomatic sources add. But the slow process shows cracks in the EU’s unity beginning to emerge as the community bloc amplifies the impact of sanctions: the deeper the retaliation, the more the bone is stung and the 27 are divided. “As time goes on, it gets more complicated,” warns a senior community source of what’s to come.
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The problem in this fifth package was not so much the green light for the coal embargo worth about 4,000 million euros, which is almost a testimony in Hungary. The real conflict was that a first cut in Russia’s energy tap is breaking new ground and opening up a very uncomfortable debate for some countries that are heavily dependent on Russian fuel, such as Hungary, Austria and Germany. Depending on how the war in Ukraine unfolds, the next steps could be just around the corner: “Oil is already on the table and that’s causing the friction,” says a diplomatic source.
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A week ago, the Russian coal embargo was not even included in the draft of the fifth package of measures. But the chilling atrocities discovered over the weekend in Bucha and other towns on the outskirts of Kyiv, allegedly carried out by the Russian military, forced the European Commission to urgently come up with a more forceful proposal.
They are aware in Brussels that an event can occur at any time that triggers the same process with oil, which is the largest energy import item from Russia by the EU: it amounts to 42,000 million euros a year, ten times more than coal, according to figures from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) even higher than gas, which reaches 28,400 million, but on which the EU is more dependent.
Germany, the EU’s economic and industrial powerhouse, leads the way in consuming Russian fuels: its gas imports via gas pipelines account for 55% of the total of the 27; and oil companies account for 22% of the group according to CREA. Berlin defends that it can achieve a gradual substitution of Russian oil by the end of the year; but it’s difficult to taper off the gas before 2024.
“In order, [el petróleo] it is not the fifth package of sanctions that is being discussed today; There is only coal, but I think that will be discussed in the Council of Foreign Ministers on Monday. And I hope that sooner or later it will happen soon,” said the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell before entering the meeting of NATO foreign ministers held in Brussels on Thursday.
Ukraine calls for a total embargo
On the other hand, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba, an exceptional guest at the NATO allies’ meeting, was much harsher. The coal embargo is not enough for Kyiv, he assured shortly before the meeting in Brussels during an appearance with the Alliance’s Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg. The new sanctions package is a “step forward,” Kuleba estimated, especially since “a week ago they were a lot more relaxed, to say the least. We were very unhappy.”
Even the received package does not correspond 100% to your expectations. “We will continue to insist on a full embargo on Russian oil and gas, on the exit from SWIFT [el sistema de pagos interbancarios] to all Russian banks,” Kuleba listed. Then his speech turned somber and revealed the colors of the EU: “I hope that we will not again find ourselves in a situation where we have to step up the pressure of sanctions, we have to expose atrocities like that of Bucha,” said he has saying. “I don’t think that the Ukrainians will have to pay with their lives, their health and their suffering for the political will of their partners to impose sanctions.”
In any case, many of the capitals assume that an at least partial embargo on all Russian fuels will be inevitable. “Sooner or later action will also be needed on oil and even gas,” said European Council President Charles Michel during an appearance in the European Parliament on Wednesday. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has presented the dilemma much more vividly. In an appearance that day, he said it was time to ask whether EU leaders favor peace “or leave the air conditioning on”.
The European Parliament stepped up the pressure by passing a resolution on Thursday calling for “an immediate and complete embargo on Russian imports of oil, coal, nuclear fuel and gas.” The text was approved with 512 votes in favour, 22 against and 19 abstentions.
Blacklist
The new package also includes an expansion to over a thousand of the list of sanctioned individuals whose assets are frozen and banned from entering European Union territory due to their collaboration with Vladimir Putin’s regime and its war, business and media machines. Among the new names, the two daughters of the Russian President, Katerina Tijonova and Maria Vorontsova, stand out, according to the draft to which EL PAÍS had access. By sanctioning them, Brussels is supporting the United States, which made the same decision on Wednesday.
Image of Katerina Tijonova, daughter of Vladimir Putin, 2021. EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA (REUTERS)
According to the draft, Tikhonova, Putin’s eldest daughter, is 38 years old and has been the director of the new institute for artificial intelligence at Moscow State University since 2016, “financed with state funds”. Currently, he adds, he runs the Innopraktika development initiative, “financed by key Russian companies whose directors are members of President Putin’s inner circle of oligarchs.” “Therefore,” continues the text, “it benefits from the Government of the Russian Federation and is associated with prominent people engaged in economic sectors that are an important source of income for the Government of the Russian Federation,” in addition to the link with its Father, which also highlights the text.
Vorontsova, the youngest of Putin’s daughters, 37, is a co-owner of Nomenko, which is involved in the largest private investment project in Russia in the health sector at an estimated cost of 40,000 million rubles (about 450 million euros). . “It benefits from the government of the Russian Federation and participates in economic sectors that are an important source of income for the government of the Russian Federation,” the draft reads.
The list proposed by the European Commission adds 217 new names of politicians, oligarchs and their families, as well as 18 other organizations – 73 in total have already been sanctioned. The community leader had already warned that with the new package of reprisals it wanted to strike at the closest families of the already sanctioned elites and powerful, to avoid loopholes through which they could escape the restrictive measures in the march. Putin himself and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, were sanctioned with asset freezes early in the invasion, although both are allowed to travel to Community territory to leave a way open for diplomacy.
The blow to the family circle reaches parents, brothers, sons, daughters and stepdaughters, mothers-in-law, wives and ex-wives and constitutes a handbook of financial escapism for Russia’s business elite. The list includes, for example, Olga Ayziman, ex-wife of Mikhail Fridman, owner of the supermarket chain Dia through the investment group LetterOne, as well as the founder and one of the main shareholders of the Alfa Group, which includes the major Russian bank The Alfa Bank, “the considered one of the most important Russian financiers and mediators of Putin’s inner circle,” the text reads. “Fridman is the main sponsor of his ex-wife’s activities and needs after she moved to Paris,” he adds.
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