The European Union imposes new sanctions on Russia

The European Union has banned Russia from selling cultural and historical property ,,that could be suspected of Ukrainian origin’’. This was stated in a statement of the Council of the EU published on the institution's official website.

          The restriction was included in the 14th package of European sanctions against Russia. It clarifies that the new restrictions are aimed at weakening valuable sectors of the Russian economy, such as energy, finance and trade, and are also intended to make it more difficult to circumvent EU sanctions.

            ,,Finally, it will be prohibited to purchase, import, transfer or export Ukrainian cultural goods and other goods of rare archaeological, historical, cultural, scientific or religious importance, if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that these goods have been illegally exported from Ukraine’’, the release states.

          The new sanctions package includes restrictive measures for another 116 individuals and entities ,,responsible for actions that threaten or undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine’’.

           In the energy sector, the EU has declared that reloading services for Russian LNG (liquefied gas) within the EU for transshipment operations to third countries are strictly prohibited.

          The new package bans the use of the Financial Message Transfer System (SPFS), a specialized financial messaging service developed by Russia's central bank to neutralize the effect of restrictive measures.

           At the same time, EU operators transferring industrial know-how for the production of battlefield goods to commercial counterparts in third countries are required to include contractual provisions to ensure that this know-how will not be used for goods intended for use in Russia.