New package of EU sanctions. What is important to know

The EU Council approved a new package of sanctions against RUSSIA - the “sixth and a half”, as it mainly included measures to clarify the sanctions and bring them in line with the American and British ones.RBC brings the most important of it

Whom did the EU put on the sanctions list?

48 individuals and nine legal entities (companies and organizations) have been added to the EU sanctions list for Russia. Among them are the children of the HEAD of Rostec Sergey Chemezov and the head of Transneft Nikolai Tokarev, the cousin of businessman Oleg Deripaska, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government Andrei Belousov (he is not included in the US and UK sanctions lists), Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, Ombudsman on Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, the now former UMMC CEO Andrey Kozitsyn (left his post so as not to expose the company to the risk of sanctions), the governor of the Kemerovo region Sergey Tsivilev, several regional legislators, military commanders, as well as actors Sergey Bezrukov and Vladimir Mashkov.

Among the legal entities are the Sevastopol stevedoring company Avlita, which the EU accuses of being involved in the loading of Ukrainian grain in the port of Sevastopol, the federal agency Rossotrudnichestvo, and Sberbank. The latter was previously included in the US and UK sanctions lists, now Sberbank will not be able to do business with European organizations. In June, the bank was disconnected from the SWIFT interbank financial messaging system by decision of the EU.

At the same time, the bank has been granted a potential exception to the sanctions regime: the competent authorities of the EU country can unfreeze its funds (or allow it to use them or the services of European companies) if it is necessary to curtail operations, contracts and correspondent banking relations with European companies by August 22, 2023. organizations. A similar permit may be granted to Sberbank for the purpose of selling its European subsidiaries by October 31, 2022 (it was reported in March that the European Sberbank Europe AG would be liquidated and its European companies sold).

Sberbank rules out the impact of EU sanctions on work inside Russia Finance

What new sectoral sanctions have been introduced

The EU expanded the list of dual-use technologies prohibited from being supplied to Russia, adding to the list, in particular, water cannons, police batons, helmets, shields, handcuffs, high-pressure pumps, hot cameras, ring magnets, radiation dosimeters, some vaccines, some medical products with the use of botulinum toxin, nanomaterials, certain bearings for high temperatures, etc.

Purchases of Russian gold sent from Russia after July 22 are prohibited. The embargo includes unwrought or semi-finished gold or in the form of powder (commodity nomenclature code 7108), waste gold (7112 91) and gold coins (7118 90), jewelry using gold (7113, 7114). It will also be impossible to import into the EU, for example, coins made from Russian gold in third countries. Earlier, a similar embargo on the import of Russian gold was introduced by the United States and Great Britain. The vast majority of gold from Russia was shipped to London (worth more than $15 billion in 2021, according to British statistics), but after that it could be re-exported to various countries, including the US and the EU - now such transactions will be prohibited. Experts said that Russian gold could be redirected to the marketsCHINA and India.

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According to the Russian Federal Customs Service, in 2021 Russia exported $17.5 billion worth of gold and gold jewelry, of which $15.4 billion went to the UK. Smaller buyers were Switzerland (gold processing hub, $418 million), Germany ($323 million), India ($320 million), Turkey ($120 million), Hong Kong ($87 million). Since March 2022, the G7 countries have practically stopped new imports of Russian gold, but continued to buy gold produced before: for example, Germany imported about $60 million worth of Russian gold in April. The London Bullion Market Association (LMBA) on March 7 banned trading in Russian gold, produced after this date.

Switzerland (not part of the G7) has not formally imposed a ban on the import of Russian gold. However, due to the decision of the LMBA, the Swiss authorities have ruled that gold produced in Russia after March 7 cannot be sold in Switzerland. In May 2022, local customs registered the import of Russian gold to Switzerland in the amount of $198 million, which raised questions from observers. The government of the country said that this metal was imported from the UK, without specifying when it was produced and to whom it belongs. The Swiss Association of Producers and Traders of Precious Metals reported that none of its members was an importer of Russian gold in May.

What current sanctions measures have been strengthened

The ban on calls of ships sailing under the Russian flag to European ports is supplemented by a ban on calls also to sea locks (which are common, for example, in the Netherlands - in Rotterdam, Amsterdam).

The European Union officially introduced another package of sanctions against Russia Politics

The ban on accepting deposits from Russians in the amount of more than €100,000 in one bank has been extended to cases where funds are placed by a company registered outside the European Union, but controlled by Russian citizens. Russian individuals, companies and organizations included in the EU sanctions list will be required until September 1, 2022 or within six weeks after being included in the sanctions list (whichever is later) to report on their assets and funds to the competent authorities of that country EU where these assets are located. It is not clear whether the Russian authorities will allow this. However, if the sanctioned persons do not report, such refusal will be considered a sanctions circumvention – a criminal act in any EU country (as per the proposal made by the EU Council in May 2022). European individuals and legal entities will be required to inform the competent authorities of cases that become known to them, when the assets of sanctioned persons and entities were to be frozen in the EU, but were not frozen for some reason.

What easing in the sanctions regime has the EU envisaged

Banks VTB, Sovcombank, Novikombank, Otkritie, VEB.RF, Promsvyazbank, Bank Rossiya, previously included in the EU sanctions list, will be able to obtain permission to use frozen funds or transactions with European operators, if necessary for the purchase or transportation of food or agricultural products anywhere (including grains and fertilizers).

The Kremlin said that the positions of countries have never changed under the influence of sanctions Politics

As RBC wrote on July 21, state-owned companies, which are generally prohibited from any transactions with Europeans, were allowed, as an exception, such transactions aimed at transporting oil and petroleum products to third countries (therefore, for example, Greek shipowners will still be able to transport oil in the interests of these state companies). The list includes Gazprom Neft, Rosneft, Sovcomflot, Rostec, etc. Similarly, transactions with Europeans are allowed, aimed at supplying third countries with pharmaceutical, medical products, agricultural goods and food. The same state-owned companies (there are 12 in total) are allowed transactions in Europe related to access to European justice (for example, to litigation or arbitration proceedings with their participation).