EU imposes new sanctions on Russia

The European Union said on Monday it has imposed new sanctions on Russia for its aggression against Ukraine, hitting the lucrative diamond industry, more than 140 officials and organisations, and has improved some rules that Moscow has used to bypass previous sanctions.

This is the 12th round of sanctions, which the European Union has decided on Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to attack Ukraine almost two years ago. The sanctions target the energy sector, banks, companies, markets and freezing assets of over 1,000 Russian officials, including stopping the EU countries from travel.

Brussels said recent sanctions would give a further blow to Putin's ability to continue the war, hitting Russian economy's high-value sectors and making it more difficult to bypass EU sanctions.

Import, purchase or transfer of natural diamonds, synthetics and diamond jewelry will be banned starting on January 1st. The ban applies to diamonds originally from Russia, exported by Russia and transit through Russia, as well as to Russian diamonds processed elsewhere.

The EU estimates that the diamond sector has an annual value of about $ 4.5 billion for Moscow.

The new round of sanctions also obliges EU companies to stop in their contracts export of specific goods so that buyers cannot sell them in Russia, especially <x0); goods and secret technology” that can be used by Russian armed forces in Ukraine.

Additional chemicals, lithium batteries, thermostats, some electric engines that can be used for the production of drones, and several machine tools and spare parts are placed on the EU list of limited or forbidden export items in Russia.

Imports into the EU of some goods generating considerable revenue for Russia were also limited, including copper and aluminum wires, metal sheets, pipelines and liquid gas.

The European Union also added 29 <x0ente”, other organisations, agencies, companies or banks, allegedly supporting Russia's military and industrial complex in the fight against Ukraine.

The 27 EU countries will now consider imposing sanctions on people who benefit from sequencing European assets or parts of companies in Russia. Member states will also be put under stricter control to ensure that they are actively tracking people's assets, which are targeted by sanctions. / VOA