On Wednesday 9 March, EU Member States agreed on additional sanctions against Russia and Belarus in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.
The Europeans decided to sanction 160 more people: 146 members of the Council of the Russian Federation who ratified government decisions on the Treaties of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between Russia and the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, and 14 oligarchs and businessmen involved in the metallurgical, agricultural, pharmaceutical, telecommunications and digital industries, among others, as well as members of their families. The CEO of the airline Aeroflot, Mikhail Poluboyarinov, is included. With this decision, the EU’s restrictive measures now apply to 862 individuals and 53 entities.
See the decision: https://aeur.eu/f/o4
The EU has also adopted new export restrictions on maritime navigation and radio communication technology, added the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping to the list of State-owned enterprises subject to funding limitations, and introduced a provision on prior information sharing for exports of maritime safety equipment. In addition, it has extended the exemption for Swiss and nationals from the European Economic Area to accept deposits of more than €100,000 in EU banks.
Finally, the EU confirmed the common understanding that loans and credit can be provided by any means, including crypto-assets, and also further clarified the concept of ‘securities’, so as to clearly include crypto-assets and thus ensure the proper implementation of the restrictions in place.
In addition, the Europeans approved new sanctions against Belarus. The Belarusian banks Belagroprombank, Bank Dabrabyt and the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus and their Belarusian subsidiaries are excluded from Swift. As with Russia, the measures clarify that crypto-assets fall within the scope of ‘securities’.
Transactions with the Belarusian Central Bank related to the management of reserves or assets and the provision of State financing for trade with and investment in Belarus are prohibited. The same applies to the listing and provision of services related to shares of Belarusian public entities on EU stock exchanges as of 12 April 2022.
Financial flows from Belarus are further restricted, with a ban on deposits of more than €100,000 from Belarusian nationals or residents. The maintenance of Belarusian customer accounts by EU CSDs and the sale of euro-denominated securities to Belarusian customers are also prohibited, as is the supply of euro-denominated banknotes to Belarus.
See the decision: https://aeur.eu/f/o5
In addition, on 8 March, the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament published its proposals to prevent Russian oligarchs from abusing EU structures to hide their wealth. According to the Greens/EFA, Russia’s offshore wealth is equivalent to 60% of the country’s GDP.
The group therefore proposes to confiscate the assets of Russian oligarchs, end all golden visa schemes in the EU and revoke those of Russian oligarchs, set up a European register of assets, ban shell companies, and end tax havens in the EU. In addition, the EU should have a higher level of ambition regarding the fight against money laundering - especially regarding crypto-currencies - and Russia should be on the EU’s anti-money laundering blacklist. Finally, according to the Greens/EFA, the G7 and G20 should come up with an action plan to fight corruption and money laundering.
See the Greens/EFA proposals: https://aeur.eu/f/no (Camille-Cerise Gessant)