|
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European
Commission has prepared a new package of sanctions against
Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine that will hit
additional Russian oligarchs and politicians and three
Belarusian banks, three sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
The draft sanctions were adopted by the EU executive on Tuesday
morning and will be discussed by EU ambassadors at a meeting
starting at 1400 GMT, one source said.
The draft package will ban three Belarusian banks from the SWIFT
banking system and add several more oligarchs and Russian
lawmakers to the EU blacklist, the sources told Reuters.
The package also bans exports from the EU of naval equipment and
software to Russia and provides guidance on the monitoring of
cryptocurrencies to avoid their use to circumvent EU sanctions,
the sources said.
Moscow describes its actions in Ukraine as a "special operation"
to disarm its neighbour and arrest leaders it calls "neo-Nazis".
Ukraine and its Western allies call this a baseless pretext for
an invasion to conquer a country of 44 million people.
EU diplomats have so far approved sanctions proposed by the EU
Commission against Russia and Belarus without any changes.
The EU has already excluded seven Russian banks from SWIFT, but
had not included Belarusian banks.
The sources declined to name the new lenders to be sanctioned.
One source said the package also listed oligarchs and members of
Russia's Federation Council, which is the upper house of the
Russian Parliament.
So far EU sanctions have hit hundreds of members of the lower
house, the Duma, who voted in favour of Russia's recognition of
the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in
eastern Ukraine.
The EU will also expand its ban on EU exports of advanced
technology to Russia, mostly supporting the ban on the export of
maritime technology, the sources said.
The ban on the export of naval equipment and software to Russia
is mainly meant to hit its shipping sector, one source said.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio, Jan
Strupczewski and John Chalmers; Editing by Catherine Evans and
Nick Macfie)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
