The EU Council announced a ban on about half of European exports to Russia

The tenth package of sanctions includes restrictions on the export of goods and technologies from the EU countries to Russia, as a result of which all the adopted packages of measures affect almost half of the EU’s exports to the Russian Federation, follows from the statement of the EU Council.

On February 25, EU diplomat Josep Borrell announced that the EU had approved the tenth package of sanctions against Russia, which included 121 individuals and organizations. As follows from the CE statement, the restrictions under the tenth package of measures apply to exports from the European Union in the amount of about 11.4 billion euros.

“With today’s package, the EU in total has imposed sanctions on almost half (49%) of its exports to Russia,” says in the document (quote from Interfax).

in number new measures against the Russian Federation included a ban on the export of critical technologies and industrial goods, the transit through Russia of dual-use goods and technologies exported from the EU, as well as a ban on the import of synthetic rubber and bitumen from the Russian Federation.

In addition, seven Iranian enterprises producing drones are subject to restrictions. It is alleged that their UAVs were used by the Russian military as part of a special operation in Ukraine. EU imposes restrictions against RT Arabic and Sputnik Arabic: The European Council has initiated the process of suspending the broadcast licenses of the two media outlets. It is noted that these measures “will not interfere with activities in the EU, except for broadcasting.”

Russian citizens will not be able to hold senior positions in organizations that operate critical infrastructure in the EU, since the influence of the Russian Federation could create a “threat to the provision of services to Europeans.” In addition, the new package of sanctions includes a ban on providing Russians with gas storage facilities. The Council expands reporting obligations on frozen funds, including CBR assets. In addition, three Russian banks were added to the tenth package of measures, their names were not specified in the statement.

Prior to this, the European Union was unable to agree on the tenth package of sanctions against Russia, which was planned to be announced on February 24, on the anniversary of the start of the special operation in Ukraine. According to Reuters, Poland rejected Italy’s demands for restrictions on rubber imports.