The new EU sanctions will ban Russian funding of European political parties and media / Article

The proposal presented by the European Commission foresees the ban on the transportation of Russian liquefied natural gas through the ports of the European Union to other regions of the world. There is no talk of completely abandoning this gas, as several European countries, including Belgium and France, still use it for electricity generation.

However, the economists polled by “Politico” hope that banning the transit of liquefied natural gas will cause Russia about 2 billion euros in losses.

On the other hand, manganese ore will not be allowed to be transported in the opposite direction, namely through the European Union to Russia.

Additional restrictions will also be directed against Belarus, as it is often used to circumvent European Union sanctions.

European Commission spokesman Peter Stano believes that the current sanctions are effective because they prevent Russia from waging a more active war against Ukraine.

“The Russian economy completely switched to a war economy. Therefore, instead of providing the citizens with the basic services they need, and instead of modernizing the economy, any growth and any investment that is happening now is focused on the defense industry,” says Stano .

The EU is also planning to ban Russian funding of European political parties and European political foundations, non-governmental organizations and media service providers, according to the draft sanctions that have come to the disposal of the internet newspaper “EUobserver”.

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.

Russia spent an estimated €280 million on foreign political parties in more than 24 countries between 2014 and 2022, according to partially declassified US intelligence that shed light on the scale of the problem.

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 it will do nothing to stop Russian interference in June’s European Parliament elections.

The EU member states’ differences in their attitude towards Moscow came to light on Tuesday, 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.”