Brussels, Sept 28 (AFP\/APP):The EU’s executive on Wednesday proposed a new round of sanctions on Moscow over its latest “escalation” in Ukraine, including an oil price cap and ban on Russian exports worth seven billion euros ($7 billion).<\/p>\n
It also plans to expand its travel blacklist and asset freezes to include high-ranking Russian defence officials and organisers of widely derided annexation votes in occupied Ukrainian territories.<\/p>\n
“Last week, Russia has escalated the invasion of Ukraine to a new level,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.<\/p>\n
She listed the “sham” referendums staged by Russia in the occupied regions of Ukraine, Moscow’s military mobilisation and President Vladimir Putin’s “threat to use nuclear weapons”.<\/p>\n
“We’re determined to make the Kremlin pay for this further escalation,” von der Leyen said.<\/p>\n
As part of the new round of sanctions — which has to be signed off by the bloc’s 27 nations — the commission is laying out a “legal basis” for a price cap on Russian oil, in line with an agreement by the G7.<\/p>\n
It will also look to ban Russian exports worth $7 billion and tighten restrictions on goods flowing from the EU that could help Russia’s war machine.<\/p>\n
“The aim is here to deprive the Kremlin’s military complex of key technologies,” von der Leyen said.<\/p>\n
“For example, this includes additional aviation items, or electronic components and specific chemical substances.”<\/p>\n
The proposal includes a prohibition on Europeans sitting on the board of Russian state-owned companies.<\/p>\n
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the blacklisted individuals would also include those helping Moscow to circumvent sanctions.<\/p>\n
The bloc has already imposed seven waves of unprecedented sanctions on Moscow since it invaded its pro-Western neighbour at the end of February.<\/p>\n
The EU has already agreed a ban in May on most oil flowing from Russia to the bloc, to take full effect in December.<\/p>\n
The push for an oil price cap is aimed at limiting how many third countries, such as China and India, pay for Russian crude.<\/p>\n
To get there, it would include restrictions on European firms shipping and ensuring Russian oil cargoes heading to the rest of the globe.<\/p>\n
The Baltic States, Ireland and Poland had pushed for stronger measures to be taken in this latest round, among them restricting cooperation with Russia’s commercial nuclear sector.<\/p>\n
That measure, though, was rebuffed by member states worried about further hitting energy supplies as Europe faces a crunch in the face of Russian cuts this winter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brussels, Sept 28 (AFP\/APP):The EU’s executive on Wednesday proposed a new round of sanctions on Moscow over its latest “escalation” in Ukraine, including an oil price cap and ban on Russian exports worth seven billion euros ($7 billion). It also plans to expand its travel […]<\/p>\n
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