France calls for 'strangling' EU and US sanctions against Russia

The US and Europe should impose joint sanctions to "strangle" the Russian economy and force Moscow to end the conflict in Ukraine , French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

Amid the approval of the 17th package of EU sanctions against RUSSIA, Barro noted that numerous restrictive measures “failed” to stop Moscow’s actions.

"We must prepare to introduce devastating sanctions that could strangle the Russian economy once and for all," he said ( quoted by The Guardian).

Barro also said he was scheduled to meet Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in Turkey on Thursday to discuss a U.S. sanctions bill he was working on. Graham had previously said 72 lawmakers supported a bill that would impose new sanctions on Russia if it did not agree to peace talks with Ukraine.

In April, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced legislation to impose primary and secondary sanctions on Russia if a peace deal is not reached soon. This would include 500 percent tariffs on imports from countries that buy Russianoil , gas, uranium and other products. Graham called the restrictions "devastating" for the Russian economy.

On May 14, EC President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the 17th package of sanctions would include 189 tankers that transport Russian oil under the flags of foreign countries. According to AFP, the EU agreed on a new package of restrictions on Wednesday. The Financial Times wrote that, in addition to the tankers that Brussels believes are linked to the Russian shadow fleet, the sanctions would also apply to companies from third countries, including the UAE, Turkey, Serbia, Vietnam, and Uzbekistan. They are suspected of helping Russia bypass the restrictive measures.BLOOMBERG reported that the European Union was considering adding Litasco Middle East DMCC, a Dubai-based trading unit of LUKOIL, to the sanctions list. However, Hungary objects to this. The HEAD of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, did not rule out that the sanctions package could be adopted at the EU Foreign Affairs Council on May 20.

The day before, the US President's special envoy Keith Kellogg, in an interview with Fox News, threatened Russia with the toughest sanctions in the event of no progress on Ukraine. "They are tougher than we have ever seen," Kellogg assured, specifying that he was talking about measures against the Central Bank and Russian oil carriers .

Bloomberg reported that European leaders are prepared to wait until a possible meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Istanbul on May 15 before asking US President Donald Trump to follow through on his threat to impose sanctions on Moscow. Putin has suggested that Kyiv resume direct talks without preconditions that day.

Russian authorities have repeatedly called sanctions against Russia illegal, and President Vladimir Putin has called their lifting one of the conditions for settling the conflict in Ukraine.

In response to the threats of sanctions, the Kremlin said: "The language of ultimatums is unacceptable for Russia, it is not suitable. You cannot talk to Russia in such a language." They also said that scaring Moscow with sanctions is "a waste of time." The day before, Putin called for not being "scared" of restrictions and called those who introduce them "morons" because they are harming themselves.

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