EU imposes 16th package of sanctions against Russia. What you need to know

The European Union has adopted the 16th package of sanctions against the Russian economy. The new restrictions are timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Strategic Defense Forces and are designed to show Kiev the support of European partners who oppose a quick end to the conflict. What the new sanctions against Russia include and what will be their effect - in the material "Izvestia".

What is included in the new package of economic measures of the EU

- On February 24, the EU adopted the next 16th package of sanctions against Russia. Restrictions against the so-called "shadow tanker fleet" were expanded: 74 more vessels are included in this category. The package also includes 53 companies suspected of circumventing the sanctions: of these, only a third of the companies are Russian, the rest belong to the jurisdiction of China, India, Kazakhstan, UAE, Uzbekistan, Turkey and Singapore. However, these restrictions are unlikely to be effective, as some of these territories are offshore zones where it is quite easy to create a new legal entity and continue trading with Russia.

- The EU also decided to disconnect 13 regional Russian banks from the SWIFT system. Secondary sanctions have been imposed on European clients of one Chinese and two Belarusian banks using the "System for the Transfer of Financial Messages" (SPFS), the Russian analog of SWIFT. The effectiveness of these restrictions is also questionable, as regional banks often do not participate in cross-border transactions with EU organizations, and European counterparties do not use the SPFS system in transactions.

Useless jab: the 16th package of sanctions will change nothing for business in Russia

Companies have adapted to the restrictions, while EU-Russia trade has already sagged by two-thirds

- The sanctions package expanded the ban on imports of Russian processed aluminum products to Europe - now the restrictions will also affect imports of primary aluminum. However, the EU has stretched the refusal from the Russian metal for a year: the enterprises will be able to receive under quotas up to 275 thousand tons of aluminum within 12 months - this is 20% less than the EU aluminum imports from Russia last year. The decision is probably related to the imposition of duties on aluminum and steel supplies to the United States: the EU is one of the major suppliers of metal to the United States.

- Eight Russian media outlets have fallen under the EU sanctions, and for the first time the EU has also imposed a total transaction ban on four regional airports, as well as the Vnukovo and Zhukovsky air harbors. The seaports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk in the Baltic Sea, the port of Novorossiysk in the Black Sea, the river port of Astrakhan on the Volga River and the port of Makhachkala in the Caspian Sea have also fallen under the sanctions . Restrictions will also affect airlines from third countries operating flights within Russia.

Exclusion from sanctions

- The new sanctions package does not include restrictions on imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia. The European Commission has repeatedly raised the issue of abandoning Russian LNG, and a ban on Russian gas was supposed to be part of the 16th package of sanctions, but in January the EU decided to postpone the deadline until the end of March (we discussed in more detail how it would be very hard for the EU to do without Russian LNG here).

Sanctions-weary: what EU countries included in the 16th package agreed by the post-prime ministers

Restrictions against gas imports from Russia likely to be postponed

- Since the beginning of the year, the transit of Russian pipeline gas through Ukrainian territory has been halted at Kiev's initiative. Despite protests from Slovakia, which had hoped to continue receiving Russian gas via the former route under contract, EU leaders welcomed the decision, saying that Europe would "not notice" the loss of Russian pipeline gas.

- The cold winter showed that the EU remains dependent on Russian energy: the amount spent by European countries on oil and gas purchases from Russia, according to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), amounted to €21.9 billion and exceeded the EU's spending on supporting Ukraine. Last year, sales of Russian LNG reached 33.6 million tons, and Europeans bought more than half of that volume. Hungary, Slovakia and even Ukraine are now receiving Russian gas through the Turkish Stream pipeline: because of the cold weather, Kiev increased gas withdrawals from storage facilities, and the remaining volume was not enough to keep the gas transportation infrastructure running, so Ukraine had to buy Russian gas at triple the price, which it protested against.

- The approval of the next package of sanctions stumbled over the position of Slovakia and Hungary, which defend the interests of their citizens and favor mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia. In particular, Hungary blocked the sanctions against Russia because the European Commission, contrary to promises, did not include the country in the negotiations on the resumption of gas transit through Ukraine. Budapest prevented the imposition of EU sanctions against individual Russians, including Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, and defended crude oil shipments to Hungary despite the restrictions included in the 16th package of sanctions.

How sanctions affect Russia and the European Union

- The very fact that Europe had to introduce the 16th package of sanctions suggests that the previous ones were not very successful and the potential of the "sanctions war" has been exhausted. Russia not only adapted to the restrictions, but also managed to turn their effect to its advantage: the niches vacated after the departure of foreign companies were occupied by domestic business, and the products manufactured in Russia turned out to be no worse than their foreign counterparts.

- Secondary sanctions against partner countries from Southeast and Central Asia, which continued to do business with Russia, did not last long. Companies adapted to the restrictions by using chains of intermediaries and closing information about the beneficiaries of transactions. The new restrictions are likely to be circumvented by partners soon, too.

- According to the World Bank, Russia has become the fourth largest economy in the world by GDP, surpassing Japan. The sanctions have hit EU countries so hard that Germany, once Europe's leading economy, has fallen into recession. The effect of the new package of sanctions on both Russia and Europe is not expected to be very noticeable, as the EU included all the most serious restrictions in its first package of sanctions, which had a strong destructive effect on the European economy.

- The Europeans themselves are already getting bored with the Ukrainian conflict: this is shown by the results of elections in EU countries, where conservatives, extreme right-wingers or moderate centrists who do not want to support the EU's bellicose rhetoric come to power. The turn to the "right" happened not only in the former Soviet countries of Slovakia and Romania, but also in Belgium, where an extreme right-wing politician became prime minister.

Russia's response to the sanctions

- In Russia, the next package of sanctions was met with indifference: the Kremlin has not yet announced any retaliatory measures. Moscow is much more focused on finding diplomatic ways to end the conflict in Ukraine, the first step toward which should be the restoration of ties between Russia and the United States.

- Europe is strongly opposed to ending the conflict in the near future, and has even announced a 17th package of sanctions against Russia. Against the backdrop of the U.S. desire to shift all the costs of maintaining Ukraine to the Europeans, this may intensify the split within the bloc , up to the withdrawal of countries dissatisfied with the policy of Brussels from the EU. But the main mass of the European Union is represented by the "war party", which can consolidate for the sake of confronting Russia.

In preparing the material "Izvestia" talked to:

• Igor Semenovsky, associate professor of the Department of International and Public Law at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation;
• political scientist Alexei Yaroshenko (Stavropol).