The new economic sanctions decided by the European Union against Russia due to Moscow's role in the Ukrainian conflict have been adopted. However, the application of the measures was postponed to allow "the evaluation of the implementation of the ceasefire and the peace plan". This was stated by the outgoing president of the European Council, Van Rompuy, after the meeting of the ambassadors of the 28. In a few days, the package of sanctions could be "revised based on the situation on the ground", he added.
In particular, the big energy companies end up in the network of European sanctions: Rosneft, a leading public company in the Russian oil sector, Transneft, the company that manages the pipelines, and Gazpromneft, the fourth largest producer of crude oil in the country. The sanctions include a ban on the purchase of bonds and shares issued by these companies by European investors and, more generally, a ban on financing. Rosneft is a shareholder of the Italian group Pirelli with a 13% stake and its president Igor Sechin sits on the board of the Milanese company. The Russian group also controls 21% of Saras.
Moscow's reply is harsh, in the words of Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev: “The economic sanctions against Russia will have political consequences and this will be more dangerous than the restrictions imposed on supplies. These measures may break the global security system, but I hope that our Western partners do not want this to happen and that there are no fools among the decision-makers. Sanctions are always a double-edged issue: the first to impose sanctions ultimately condemns himself to restrictions, and trying to harm the other creates problems for himself”.
There have been “many cases of sanctions in the history of humanity, both the legitimate ones imposed by the UN and the illegitimate ones imposed by the States – added Medvedevev -. But as a rule, they have done no good. Moscow could respond to new Western sanctions asymmetrically, perhaps by denying airspace over Russia, if the West continues to be tempted to use force in international relations”.
