Sixth package of sanctions against Russia: Kirill off the blacklist

Formal green light also comes to sixth sanctions package against Russia by compromising with Hungarian President Orban - Russian giant Sberbank out of Swift system

After a weeks-long stalemate, the European Union approved the sixth package of sanctions against Russia. The green light, reached on the night of the last European Council, was ratified on Thursday by the 27 ambassadors of the Union with a single variant: the exclusion of the Russian patriarch Kirill from the black list.

The oil embargo

The new round of sanctions includes Moscow's phased oil embargo. It starts with the blocking of imports by sea from the end of the year and continues, from 2023, with the stop also of crude oil arriving through the Druzhba pipeline voluntarily accepted by Germany and Poland. Hungary was instead exempted. At the Czech Republic an 18-month derogation was granted, while the Bulgaria he will have until 2024 to turn off the taps.

“Thanks to the French presidency of the EU semester, another strong package of sanctions against Putin and the Kremlin was agreed today – he wrote in a tweet Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission – In fact, 90% of Russian oil imports to the EU will be banned by the end of 2022. This will reduce Russia's ability to finance its war”.

Thanks to the @Europe2022FR French Presidency, another strong package of sanctions was agreed today against Putin and the Kremlin.

De facto 90% of Russian oil imports to 🇪🇺 will be banned by the end of 2022.

This will reduce Russia's capacity to finance its war.
- Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) June 2, 2022

Sixth package of sanctions against Russia: Sberbank excluded from the Swift system

Another intervention of particular importance concerns the Russian banking giant Sberbank, which, together with other financial institutions of the Federation, was excluded from the Swift international interbank payment system.

Orban also wins over patriarch Kirill, removed from the black list

Another significant novelty, but this time only at a political level, the removal of Patriarch Kirill from the black list from the sixth package of sanctions against Russia. This is the sixteenth Patriarch of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church. This point was inserted to please the Hungarian president, Viktor Orban, who until now had denied the green light to the sixth package of sanctions against Russia mainly due to concerns related to the supply of oil (which, of course, does not arrive in Hungary by sea). .

US moves

Meanwhile, the United States has announced new measures against Russia to target government officials, oligarchs and companies linked to Vladimir Putin and key sectors of the economy.