Von der Leyen: the development of sanctions against Russia began at the end of 2021

The European Union and the United States began to develop large-scale economic sanctions against Russia two months before the start of the special operation in Ukraine, in December 2021, but Western countries expected that they would not have to be applied, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the Munich Security Conference.

“More than a year ago, the United States began to do an unprecedented thing, laying out its intelligence data in the public space, declaring that Russia was preparing an attack on Ukraine. We hoped that this would not happen, but we began to prepare,” said von der Leyen (TASS quote).

The head of the EC also announced the need to speed up the production of standardized weapons and ammunition for deliveries to Ukraine. She announced her intention to turn to the industry of the entire European Union and “ask them what is needed to qualitatively increase the production of ammunition.”

Against the backdrop of the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, the EU has already adopted nine packages of sanctions against the Russian Federation. The restrictions affected many sectors of the economy, including energy, the high-tech sector, aviation, banking and mining, the automotive industry, etc. On December 16, 2022, the EU adopted the ninth package of sanctions against the Russian Federation. The restrictions affected Russian banks, the export of dual-use goods and technologies, and a ban was introduced on investments in the energy and mining sectors of Russia.

On February 2, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in which it called on the EU countries “as soon as possible” to adopt the tenth package of sanctions against Russia. In addition, the European Parliament proposed imposing sanctions against Lukoil and Rosatom, as well as abandoning not only Russian oil and gas, but also uranium. The head of the European Commission reported that the tenth package of sanctions against Russia being developed by the EU contains trade restrictions on supplies of 11 billion euros. By words German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the tenth package of sanctions will come into force on February 24, the anniversary of the start of the special operation in Ukraine. EU ambassadors failed to agree on a new package of sanctions this week over disagreements over a synthetic rubber import ban, Politico reported.

On December 15 last year, during a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects, Putin announced the unjustified calculations of the West to “crush” the Russian economy with the help of sanctions. According to him, Western countries failed to collapse the ruble and “provoke destructive inflation” due to the concentration of Russian business and the solidarity of the country’s citizens.