Enlarge image
Gold bars at a plant in Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Photo: Alexander Manzyuk / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
As planned, the European Union has tightened sanctions against Russia over the war of aggression against Ukraine.
One of the most important innovations is that Sberbank is now also on the EU sanctions list.
The largest financial institution in Russia had already been excluded from the international financial communications network Swift in early June.
Now funds and other bank assets can also be frozen.
It is also no longer allowed to carry out transactions in the EU – apart from a few exceptions, such as payments for food or fertilizer.
The import of gold and gold jewelery from Russia into the EU is now also prohibited - even if the goods were previously sold in a third country.
This is what the seventh package of sanctions against Russia says, which was published in the EU Official Journal on Thursday evening.
It sends "a strong signal to Moscow," said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Twitter.
"We will keep up the pressure for as long as necessary." Moscow must continue to "pay a high price for its aggression."
However, the effects of the gold embargo on Germany are manageable: According to the Central Association of German Goldsmiths, Silversmiths and Jewelers, Germany does not obtain its gold directly from Russia, but from so-called refineries that recycle the gold.
The president of the association, Michael Seuber, also sees ways to circumvent an import ban, since it is not possible to determine the origin.
"So it could be that Russian gold still comes to Europe via other trade routes, of course," he said.
According to the Commission, the UK and Switzerland are the main importers of gold in Europe.
In addition to Sberbank, dozens of other people and organizations have landed on the EU's sanctions list - including Andrei Kositsyn, head of the mining company UGMK, the actor Vladimir Mashkov ("Mission: Impossible - Phantom Protocol") and various politicians, soldiers and relatives of already listed Russian oligarchs .
»Night wolves« on the sanctions list
The package also contains punitive measures against members of the Russian nationalist motorcycle club »Night Wolves«, who are now no longer allowed to enter the EU.
In addition, their assets in the EU will be frozen.
Among other things, the measures affect the club president Alexander Saldostanov.
According to the decision, he has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and supports Russian state propaganda.
According to the EU Commission, those affected by sanctions will in future also have to state what assets they have in the EU.
If they fail to do so, they could be prosecuted and their assets could not only be frozen but potentially confiscated.
But this is a matter for national courts, said a senior EU official.
The total number of people sanctioned by the EU increases as a result of the seventh package by 54 to 1229, and that of organizations by ten to 110. This only slight increase also shows that the EU is slowly running out of worthwhile targets for sanctions.
That is why the EU itself is not talking about a seventh package of sanctions, but about measures to improve existing sanctions.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has described the new EU sanctions as pointless, illegal and dangerous for the entire global economy.
"The pernicious consequences of the EU sanctions exercises for various segments of the world economy and security, including for the EU member countries, are becoming increasingly clear," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Apparently, the exceptions for the agricultural sector did not impress Zakharova: "Unfortunately, we know that there is a huge distance between the declarations of intent and real steps in the EU," she said.
Moscow has been denying responsibility for rising food prices for months.
Western states, on the other hand, accuse Russia of weaponizing hunger, deliberately creating price-boosting insecurity in global food markets and blocking Ukrainian grain exports via Black Sea seaports in order to exacerbate the crisis.
mbe
