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EU approves new sanction against Putin’s Russia, focusing on its shadow tanker fleet and Chinese firms supplying drones and military equipment to Moscow

The European Union has approved its 15th sanctions package against Russia, focusing on its shadow tanker fleet and Chinese companies providing drones to Moscow.

These measures are taken to weaken Russia’s economy and disrupt its military operations as the war in Ukraine continues.

The Hungarian presidency of the EU confirmed that the sanctions target vessels from third countries helping in Russia’s oil trade and several entities supplying technology to support its military.

This package will add approximately 45 to 50 tankers, 30 entities, and over 50 individuals to the EU’s sanctions list.

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  • Each sanction needs to be spelled out, discussed, and voted.

    Countries have a lot of complex relationships between them, sanctioned countries find new ways to circumvent some… so it’s not possible to “do all the sanctions” at once, not for the existing relationships, and definitely not for all circumvention methods a country might come up with in the future.

    Then, there are underlying interests, like in sanctioning Gazprom along with most banks… but waiting over two years to sanction Gazpombank, which was still being used to buy gas from Russia.