On the eve of the 2nd anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, the West adopted a new package of sanctions against Russia. Moscow promises retaliation.
As the war in Ukraine entered its third year this Saturday, the European Union, United States and Canada announced Friday a massive new set of sanctions against Russia, probably the largest joint effort since the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022.
Concretely, 600 people or entities are targeted with the new set of American sanctions (nearly 200 in the European list, 163 in the Canadian list).
This strengthening of sanctions also comes as a response to the death of one of the Kremlin’s number 1 opponent, Alexeï Navalny.
But these sanctions would be insufficient and would arrive too late, according to former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt who recalls that the Navalny foundation had listed nearly 6,000 people considered to be part of the ruling elite and, as such, should also be sanctioned by the West.
Joe Biden also mentioned “personal” sanctions against Vladimir Putin but these have not been made public, the president’s security adviser simply stating that “this is only the beginning”.
Among those sanctioned, several members of the staff of the Russian federal penitentiary service were notably targeted, in particular its deputy director, who allegedly ordered harsher treatment against Alexeï Navalny and who was promoted to the higher rank by Vladimir Putin just three days after the death of the Russian opponent.
Generally speaking, the majority of sanctions are aimed at undermining the Russian economy and war machine as well as the Kremlin’s ability to evade previously imposed sanctions.
The public system “Mir” (the equivalent of the Visa and MasterCard systems is one of the new targets, as Moscow increasingly uses it to trade abroad. Another target is “Sovcomflot”, considered as the largest Russian shipping company, focused on oil and gas transportation.
About 100 companies face restrictions for helping Kremlin avoid previous sanctions; most come from Russia, but there are also companies from China, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, India and Serbia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the sanctions “illegal” and promised “a rapid and adequate response.” Suppliers of “Mir” responded that the sanctions would have no effect and would not affect the fulfillment of customers’ obligations.