Norway joined the 11th package of EU sanctions against Russia

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the expansion of sanctions against Russia, the new restrictions are generally consistent with the 11th sanctions package of the European Union (EU), reported on the department’s website.

“The 11th package of sanctions is aimed at strengthening existing sanctions and combating their circumvention <...> Trade opportunities with Russia are becoming increasingly limited and risky <...> The new round of sanctions largely corresponds to the measures of the 11th package of EU sanctions,” the statement said.

In particular, the transit through the territory of the Russian Federation of goods and technologies that can help increase the military and technological potential of the Russian Federation, as well as the expansion of the list of such goods and technologies, is prohibited. A similar ban is imposed on products used in the aviation or space industries. In addition, the list of organizations associated with the Russian military industry, in respect of which export restrictions have been introduced, has been expanded.

At the same time, the country’s Foreign Ministry noted that it is still considering the issue of joining the EU ban on access to ports for ships suspected of violating sanctions against Russian oil.

“Norway is still considering how best to implement this ban in Norwegian law, and regulatory changes on this issue will be made later,” the Foreign Ministry explained.

Since the start of the special operation, the EU has already introduced 11 packages of sanctions against Russia in addition to the existing restrictions. The last one was agreed upon in June. The restrictions included 87 organizations that allegedly support the Russian Federation, as well as 100 Russians, including entrepreneurs, military personnel, journalists, etc., in addition, a ban was introduced on the transportation of oil along the northern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline.

The previous 10th package of European sanctions against Russia was introduced at the end of February 2023. Then it introduced restrictions for 87 individuals and 34 legal entities.

Earlier in September, the media found out that the EU could present the 12th package of sanctions against Russia in the first half of October. According to Bloomberg, they plan to include permission to use the frozen assets of the Bank of Russia to support Ukraine. Poland, the Baltic countries and a number of other EU states also insist on introducing additional restrictions against LNG from the Russian Federation and the services of Russian IT specialists.

In early August, the Russian government included Norway on the list of states committing unfriendly actions against Russian diplomatic and consular missions abroad. For diplomatic missions included in such a list, the ability to hire workers located in Russia at embassies, consulates, representative offices of government agencies and government agencies is limited.