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BRUSSELS, June 23 () –
The European Union has adopted this Friday new sanctions against 104 entities and individuals for the Russian invasion, in the eleventh round of restrictions that, in addition to expanding the ban on exporting technology to Russia and punishing Russian media, includes a mechanism to prosecute companies and third countries to help Moscow circumvent the sanctions.
The European block thus adds 71 people and 33 entities responsible for actions that damage the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine in the context of the Russian invasion. This is the eleventh round of sanctions since Moscow launched the military attack against the neighboring country 16 months ago and which already affects 1,800 companies and people who are subject to the freezing of assets and the ban on entering the EU.
The EU includes in its ‘black list’ senior military officials of the Russian Armed Forces and people involved in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, as well as those responsible for attacks on Ukrainian cultural property. In addition, in a new step against Russian disinformation, the bloc sanctions media executives and propagandists and suspends the license in Europe of five Russian channels.
In the entities section, companies from the Russian military sector that manufacture missiles, drones, anti-aircraft missile systems, military vehicles and high-tech components for weapons that Moscow uses against Kiev are now sanctioned.
Similarly, the EU reviews its rules for exports of dual-use goods, that is, those that can be used for military purposes, to further restrict the export of dual-use goods and technologies.
MECHANISM TO AVOID THE AVOIDANCE OF SANCTIONS
In an attempt to stop the increasing maneuvers to circumvent sanctions, the EU is launching a new instrument with which to further control the sale of certain goods that Russia acquires through third countries.
The Twenty-seven plan to use this mechanism in a “quick, proportionate, and specific” way to prevent Russia from having the goods diverted through third countries. At that point, the EU will launch a dialogue with companies and countries involved in circumvention to find ways to cooperate to tackle anomalous trade flows.
If, despite individual sanctions, systemic circumvention of sanctions continues, the EU will have the possibility to take “exceptional measures of last resort” such as restricting the sale, supply, transfer or export of goods and technologies to third countries that have been shown to end up in the hands of Russia.
