EU

EU candidate countries join sanctions against Russia

EU candidate countries have joined the sanctions against Russia that Brussels has previously adopted, according to a widespread message from the Council of the European Union. The sanctions were joined by Albania, Iceland, Montenegro, Norway, Liechtenstein and Ukraine.

We are talking about those sanctions that were adopted by the European Union in the middle – then the restrictions affected the oil and aircraft industries and the defense complex. Under European sanctions, the companies Rosneft, Transneft, Gazprom Neft, Uralvagonzavod fell. In addition, EU citizens were forbidden to buy or sell securities with a maturity of more than 30 days issued by Russian state-owned banks – Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, VEB and Russian Agricultural Bank.

Earlier, EU neighboring countries joined the previous “waves” of sanctions against Russia. In May, Montenegro, Iceland, Albania, Liechtenstein and Norway froze bank accounts and banned entry for 15 Russian citizens, including Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, State Duma Deputy Chairmen Sergei Neverov and Lyudmila Shvetsova, and several other officials.
On October 14, EU representative in Moscow Vigudas Usackas stated that EU sanctions against Russia are not endless and are not an end in themselves. According to him, they will be reviewed at the end of October. Usackas called progress to stabilize the situation in Ukraine and compliance with the Minsk peace agreements as a condition for lifting sanctions.

Montenegro, Iceland, Albania, Liechtenstein and Norway joined the EU sanctions imposed on April 28 against the Russians. This is stated in a May 26 message from the European Union.

On May 28, Brussels denied entry and froze the assets of 15 Russian citizens. The sanctions list includes, for example, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, State Duma Deputy Chairmen Sergei Neverov and Lyudmila Shvetsova, as well as Crimean Minister Oleg Savelyev, General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov, acting Governor of Sevastopol Sergey Menyaylo, head of the GRU Igor Sergun, member of the Federation Council from Crimea Olga Kovitidi, plenipotentiary of the President of Russia in Crimea Oleg Belaventsev.

Prior to this, in March, the EU already imposed sanctions against 33 people. These included deputies Sergey Zheleznyak, Sergey Mironov, Leonid Slutsky and others.

The European Union believes that they all undermine the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.

The states that supported the EU sanctions maintain close integration relations with the Union. In particular, Montenegro and Iceland are candidates for EU accession, while Norway and Liechtenstein are members of the European Economic Area and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which also includes Iceland. According to the EU methodology, Albania is undergoing a “stabilization and association process”, which could be a preliminary period before the country joins the candidate countries for EU accession.

This post is also available in: English Русский (Russian)

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