Brussels, 21/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - During the night of 20 to 21 March, the heads of state and government decided to add 12 names to the list of 21 people under a visa ban and whose assets have been frozen in the EU due to the events in Ukraine (see EUROPE 11040). This addition is justified, according to the European Council, by the referendum in Crimea and its consequences, and “the absence of any appeasement measure”.
The individuals who have just been added to the list are: Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin; the presidents of the Council of the Federation, Valentina Matvienko, and of the Duma, Sergey Naryshkin; the advisers to President Vladimir Putin, Vladislav Surkov and Sergey Galzyev; member of the Duma, Elena Mizoulina, who was behind the legislative proposals aiming to allow regions of other countries to join the Russian Federation; and the journalist Dmitri Kiselyov. Also, the military leaders Alexander Nosatov and Valery Kulikov deputy commanders of Russia's Black Sea Fleet; and the head of Russian forces in Crimea, General Igor Turchenyuk. There are two Ukrainians from Crimea: the president of the Crimea electoral commission, Mikhail Malyshev, and the president of the electoral commission of Sebastopol, Valery Medvedev.
The measures, which were adopted by written procedure, entered into force on 21 March and will run until 17 September. They are renewable. According to French President François Hollande, the list was drawn up in collaboration with the American administration, which itself adopted similar measures. The two lists are similar, he added. Rogozin immediately joked on Twitter about these new sanctions, which affect him directly: “all these sanctions aren't worth a grain of sand of the Crimean land that returned to Russia”.
According to the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk it was not entirely plain sailing to put the list together. “This also gave rise to a considerable amount of emotion, as certain countries sought to negotiate, to correct (the list) on the basis, for example, of their relationship with the individuals”, he explained, speaking after the European Council. For his part, President of the European CommissionJosé Manuel Barroso had no doubts about the immediate effects of the new measures: “we believe that the sanctions have already had an impact on the Russian economy”.
In their conclusions, the European leaders reiterate that the EU remains determined to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Naturally, therefore, “the European Council does not recognise the illegal referendum in Crimea (…) and firmly condemns the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sebastopol to the Federation of Russia and will not recognise it”. At the same time, the Council called on the Commission to assess the legal consequences of the annexation of Crimea and to propose economic, commercial and financial restrictions regarding Crimea. These restrictions will be “designed to be implemented swiftly”.
Reflection on economic sanctions. The Commission has also been given a mandate to prepare the stage-three sanctions, in other words economic sanctions, against Russia. “Any other initiatives Russia might take to destabilise the situation in Ukraine will bring about, for relations between the EU and its member states on the one hand, and Russia on the other, further large-scale consequences in a series of economic areas”, the leaders reiterated. They stressed that with regard to this, “the European Council is calling on the Commission and the member states to reflect on possible targeted measures”. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that the proposals could relate to the fields of the economy, trade and finance. According to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the member states will also make proposals for a weapons embargo. As Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite noted, the implementation of this third stage of sanctions “will depend on Putin's behaviour”. This behaviour is, she added, fairly predictable, as it is fairly hard to imagine “that this situation will be easier any time soon”. “Quite the reverse; it is very likely that the tension will increase”, she concluded.
The European leaders have also decided quite simply to cancel the forthcoming EU-Russia summit, which was due to be held in Sochi in June. All the other regular bilateral meetings will have the same fate “for the time being”. The European Council and the member states “also support the meeting of the heads and state government of the countries of the G7” (which includes France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy). This meeting is expected to be held early next week in The Hague and will be attended by Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov. They also support the suspension of negotiations on Russia's accession to the OECD and the International Energy Agency.
Calls for deployment of OSCE mission. The European Council called for an agreement to be reached “rapidly” on the deployment of an OSCE mission to Ukraine “as soon as possible”, “in order to help to stabilise the situation”. It therefore calls upon High Representative Catherine Ashton, “to put together plans as a matter of urgency concerning the EU's contribution to facilitating the work of the OSCE mission”. Merkel said that an unsuccessful outcome of this mission would not trigger the third stage of sanctions. She also expressed her hopes that the question of the OSCE would be resolved before the meeting of the G7. In the absence of an agreement in “the next few days” or if Russia blocked this mission, the EU will replace it, by sending a European mission. France and Poland have already undertaken to participate. “We should be able to observe what is happening in Ukraine, so that nobody can cause provocations which would justify an intervention”, said Tusk.
The Council stressed that it was “firmly convinced that the recourse to force and coercion to change borders has no place in the Europe of the 21st century” and added that the acts committed by Russia constituted a manifest breach of the Helsinki process. The leaders deplored the fact that “Russia has still not taken any measures to resolve the crisis and the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have still not started”. They stated that the EU would continue to play a leading role in the efforts made to facilitate and carry out proper dialogue involving Ukraine and Russia, “notably by setting in place a multilateral mechanism, with a view to reaching a peaceful solution”. Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, however, regretted the fact that “there is manifestly no desire to send European leaders in the immediate future for direct discussions with (the Russian President Vladimir) Putin”. “However, all channels (for discussions) remain open”, he added. The leaders also praised the “moderate reaction Ukraine has shown up to now". (CG with MD, JK, EL, AN, MB, EH)