The European Union (EU) wishes to apply a progressive embargo on oil and derivatives purchased from Russiain response to the war in Ukraine, proposed on Wednesday the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
“We are going to progressively renounce Russian deliveries of oil over a period of six months and those of crude oil products by the end of the year,” the official told MEPs in Strasbourg.
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Von der Leyen thus outlined the sixth package of sanctions against Moscow for the war in Ukraine, which includes an extensive list of sanctioned personalities, including the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.
In his speech, Von der Leyen announced that the EU intends that the new sanctions package include three Russian banks, including Sberbank, the country’s largest bank.
Hitting “banks of critical systemic importance to the Russian financial system” will reinforce Russia’s “total isolation” and weaken its ability to finance the war in Ukraine, the German official said.
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More sanctions on the Kremlin
It will reinforce the “total isolation”
As mentioned, it was proposed to remove three other Russian banks from the SWIFT interbank system, including Sberbank, the largest bank in Russiaas part of a new package of sanctions, announced the president of the European Commission.
Hitting “banks of critical systemic importance to the Russian financial system” will reinforce Russia’s “total isolation” and weaken its ability to finance the war in Ukraine, von der Leyen told the European Parliament.
There was also talk of sanctioning the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, as part of a sixth package of measures in response to the war in Ukraine, according to documents consulted on Wednesday by the AFP agency.
The new list, which still needs to be approved by the Member States, includes 58 sanctioned personalitiesincluding, in addition to Kirill, many Russian military personnel, as well as the wife, daughter and son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov.
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According to documents seen by AFP, Kirill is described as “a long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, and became one of the main supporters of military aggression” in Ukraine.
Patriarch Kirill (also called Cyril I) is the highest leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has some 150 million followers around the world, especially in Russia.
In recent statements, the patriarch made calls for Russian unity in the midst of the military conflict in Ukraine.
AFP
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