A gravity platform for the production of liquefied natural gas under construction last summer at the Novatek-Murmansk company’s Arctic Circle marine yard in Murmansk in Russia’s far north. File Photo by Alexey Babushkin/EPA-EFE
June 20 (UPI) — European Union member countries agreed a tough new round of Russia sanctions Thursday targeting its lucrative Liquefied Natural Gas exports for the first time and reinforcing existing measures aimed at punishing Russian aggression against Ukraine, the European Council said.
Calling its 14th package of sanctions to be approved by national envoys to the council “powerful and substantial,” the Belgian Presidency said in a post on X that the latest action provided new targeted measures and maximized the impact of existing sanctions by “closing loopholes.”
Most of Russia’s LNG shipments to Europe, $8.3 billion worth in 2023, will be unaffected with the sanctions instead banning EU energy terminals from reselling the gas — which mostly goes to Spain, France and Belgium but also to global customers including China, India and Turkey.
EU institutions and investors will also be prohibited from providing finance for LNG terminals Russia hopes to build in the Baltic and Arctic.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the decision saying it would make it even harder for Russia to access key technologies.
“It will strip Russia of further energy revenues. And tackle Putin’s shadow fleet and shadow banking network abroad,” she wrote in a post on social media.
Thursday’s breakthrough to remedy the failure of Western measures to hit Russia’s earnings from fossil fuel exports by targeting gas — which until now was only affected by the EU voluntarily reducing its dependence — came after weeks of opposition from Hungary and Germany.
Berlin dropped its resistance after a provision it was worried would harm small businesses was suspended until a study looking at its impact was complete, diplomats told Politico.
The fear was that extending a so-called “no-Russia clause,” covering firearms, battlefield items and dual-use goods with both military and civilian uses, to products such as chemicals and machine tools would stop smaller businesses, which make up most of Germany’s economy, from exporting for fear of inadvertently breaking sanctions.
Berlin has also been stung by unfavorable comparisons with Hungary which has been reluctant to support sanctions from the get-go due to its dependence on Russian oil, gas and nuclear fuel and close pre-Ukraine invasion ties with Moscow.
Budapest relented only after Russian assistance with its Paks II nuclear plant was exempted, according to Politico’s sources.
The council was due to discuss a parallel package of measures later Thursday against Belarus, seen as a workaround via which Russia is still able to get access to sanctioned goods and products.
Germany and France have been stalling over worries sales of luxury cars out of Stuggart, Munich and Ingolstadt and fashion and beauty from Paris will be hit.
