MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/. The goal of the European Union’s 11th package of sanctions is to take its economic war against Moscow to a new level, Russia’s Acting Permanent Representative to the EU Kirill Logvinov told TASS.
The 11th package of sanctions is taking the economic war that the European Union and its member states are waging against Russia to an entirely new level. Having developed the so called tool to combat efforts to bypass sanctions, Brussels intends to drag as many countries as possible into this war. That said, there is a clear shift from a failed blitzkrieg, which was said to be aimed at causing irreparable damage to Russia, to a multimove game with the goal of establishing a kind of long term economic blockade against our country, Logvinov pointed out.
Brussels can hardly be expected to encourage third countries to join sanctions through some diplomatic efforts. The EU always prefers to use blackmail and coercion. Since the EU remains the biggest economic partner for many countries, as well as a source of investment and a financial donor, Brussels clearly has enough leverage to exert pressure. So, the EU’s fight against the bypassing of sanctions is expected to be lengthy and uncompromising, the Russian envoy stressed.
The first ten packages of sanctions imposed by the EU included direct restrictions in terms of trade, transport links and financial ties with Moscow. However, the 11th package for the first time introduced the principle of extraterritoriality of sanctions as Brussels officially intends to blacklist the companies from third countries suspected of re exporting banned goods to Russia or being engaged in activities such as oil transportation without taking the so called Russian oil price cap into account.
