European Union’s 14th sanctions package: what is included in the new round of sanctions directed against Russia?

The 14th package of sanctions of the European Union (EU), which will be directed against Russia, will ban Russian funding of “European political parties and European political funds”, “non-governmental organizations” and “media service providers”, according to the draft of the sanctions, which came to the online newspaper “EUobserver ” action.

The purpose of the ban is to “protect the integrity of the union’s political processes, protect the union’s citizens from manipulation, and protect the union’s internal affairs from malicious interference,” the draft sanctions said.

The governments of the EU member states will be able to make exceptions, but on the condition that they do not interfere in any way with the democratic processes in the union, and each deviation will have to be reported to the European Commission (EC).

EU countries will also be encouraged to share information on penalties imposed for violations of the ban.

The aim is to close loopholes left over from previous sanctions that already banned Russia from lobbying the EU and spreading propaganda.

The Czech Republic announced in March that its intelligence agency had busted a Moscow-funded network that spread Russian propaganda and enjoyed influence across Europe, including the European Parliament (EP). The group used the Prague-based news site Voice of Europe to spread information aimed at dissuading the European Union from sending aid to Ukraine.

In connection with this case, the Czech and Polish intelligence services intercepted bribes worth tens of thousands of euros.

According to partially declassified US intelligence, which shed light on the scale of the problem, Russia has spent around 280 million euros between 2014 and 2022 on foreign political parties in more than 24 countries.

The new sanctions package also includes restrictions on the export of Russian liquefied natural gas from EU ports and a ban on EU ports accepting ships that help Russia circumvent sanctions, as well as a ban on the sale of stolen Ukrainian works of art. It is also planned to strengthen the existing EU restrictions on Russian aviation and the import of Russian helium and various minerals.

An agreement on the 14th round of sanctions could be reached by July, which means that they will not help in any way to stop Russian interference in the upcoming European Parliament elections in June.

Disagreements in the attitude of EU member states towards Moscow came to light yesterday, when six countries participated in the “inauguration” ceremony of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

France, Cyprus and Greece sent their ambassadors. Slovakia sent a plenipotentiary, and Hungary and Malta also sent diplomats, EU sources said. The other EU countries did not send their representatives to Putin’s “inauguration”.

“We want to maintain normal diplomatic relations with Russia. However, Belgium agrees with the European Union’s position regarding [Krievijas] for the presidential elections in mid-March,” said the diplomat of the EU-presidency country Belgium.

Speaking of the six EU countries that did attend the Kremlin event on Tuesday, an EU diplomat said: “It is sad that after two years of full-scale war in Ukraine, we are still unable to present a united front against Putin.”