- Статьи
- World
- Point of confrontation: EU wants to tighten sanctions against Russia through the United States
Point of confrontation: EU wants to tighten sanctions against Russia through the United States
Representatives of the European Commission arrived in Washington on September 8 to convince the United States to join the new restrictions. By trying to impose sanctions against Russia on the United States, Brussels is seeking to disrupt peace talks on Ukraine, Vladislav Maslennikov, director of the Department of European Affairs at the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Izvestia. The expert community, however, believes that Donald Trump is unlikely to be led by the EU and will support the 19th package of measures against Russia, which the EC plans to present by the end of this week. About what demands the United States is making to the European Union and why the European Commission is not interested in an early resolution of the conflict in Ukraine, see the Izvestia article.
The EC is seeking the United States to join the sanctions
The EU is trying to drag the United States into new sanctions against Russia, Vladislav Maslennikov, director of the Department of European Affairs at the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Izvestia. Brussels' goal is to obstruct the peace process to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.
"The current European Commission has thrown all its political capital and a huge part of the EU's financial capital into the militarization of the European Union in the hope of restarting its economy through the build—up of the European military-industrial complex," the diplomat noted.
Back in the spring, EU leaders approved an 800 billion euro European rearmament plan. Brussels expects that this money will be raised in the form of loans. Meanwhile, the European economy faces the risk of complete stagnation. According to Eurostat, economic growth in the EU practically stopped in the second quarter of this year, and industrial production declined sharply. And while France managed to achieve modest growth of 0.3%, Germany and Italy showed a decline of 0.1%.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, emphasizes that the EU intends to tighten sanctions against Russia. The media reports that the EC is ready to present the 19th package of sanctions on September 12.
According to Bloomberg, it may include sanctions against Russian payment systems and credit cards, cryptocurrency exchanges, as well as additional restrictions on oil trading. The EU also wants to expand restrictions on Russian vessels, oil traders in third countries and a ban on reinsurance of tankers included in the sanctions list. In addition, in the new package, Brussels intends to ban the re-export of goods to Russia through third countries, Politico reports. According to Reuters, the blacklist is also likely to include two Central Asian banks and a number of regional credit institutions of the Russian Federation.
The head of the European Council, Antonio Costa, says bluntly that the EU is seeking support for new restrictions from the United States. "We are currently discussing sanctions and how we can coordinate them," he said. On September 8, representatives of the European Commission, led by Special Envoy for sanctions David O'Sullivan, arrived in Washington. The Europeans aim to negotiate new anti-Russian restrictions with the Americans. However, Brussels is unlikely to be able to convince US President Donald Trump to join the sanctions that the European Union is lobbying for, according to Andrei Kortunov, an expert at Valdai.
— It is not without reason that Trump accuses the European Union of hypocrisy — that he himself is not ready to completely abandon economic cooperation with Moscow, including through purchases of Russian petroleum products through third countries such as India. It seems to me that Trump will urge the Europeans to start with themselves," he said in a conversation with Izvestia.
In addition, the head of the White House said earlier that he plans to hold a conversation with Vladimir Putin in the coming days. He called the meeting that took place on August 15 in Alaska excellent.
"I don't think he will be ready to take any very harsh measures against Russia that would make this conversation more difficult and less productive," said Andrei Kortunov. — Although Trump says from time to time that he is "disappointed" and "unhappy," he does not give up trying to move forward towards resolving the conflict.
Trump's terms for the EU
However, on September 7, Donald Trump expressed his readiness to move on to the next stage of sanctions. On the same day, Kevin Hassett, head of the National Economic Council at the White House, said that the staff of the American administration would soon discuss the possibility of introducing new anti-Russian restrictions. The final decision on this issue should be made by Trump. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington is ready to increase sanctions pressure on Moscow, but intends to do this together with European countries.
The New York Post reported that Trump, in a telephone conversation with European leaders, allegedly demanded increased economic pressure on China "for sponsoring Russian military efforts," as well as to stop buying Russian oil. The head of the US Department of Energy, Chris Wright, bluntly stated: Europe must abandon gas and oil from the Russian Federation if it wants to tighten American sanctions against Moscow.
Andrei Kortunov believes that the United States will agree to join the 19th package of EU sanctions only if it includes a complete refusal to import oil from Russia and secondary restrictions against countries that actively purchase energy resources from Russia.
— It is now tactically more advantageous for Trump to increase pressure on those countries for which he has already imposed increased tariffs. He would like this tariff increase to become universal. And it is clear that the accession of the European Union would create a certain cumulative effect. Then it would be possible to twist the arms of both India and Brazil, and in the future, China, more confidently," the analyst noted.
Earlier, the Financial Times wrote that the European Union has already begun to consider the possibility of imposing secondary sanctions against China, but the proposals are still "at a very early stage." However, Brussels is not ready for radical steps against Beijing. China remains the EU's second most important trading partner after the United States, and the European Union fears possible Chinese retaliatory measures against European companies.
It is unlikely that the European Union will follow the example of the United States, which imposed 50% duties on India. Joining Washington's restrictions would mean that the EU would deviate from the course of developing trade with New Delhi. Earlier, Ursula von der Leyen said that the EC expects to complete negotiations on a free trade agreement by the end of 2025.
Finally, the European Union intends to completely abandon the purchase of hydrocarbons from the Russian Federation no earlier than 2027. Last year, Russia accounted for about 19% of gas imports and 3% of oil. Hungary and Slovakia remain active consumers of our energy resources.
The sanctions that have been imposed against Russia in recent years have had no effect and turned out to be useless, said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation.
"It would be preferable for us to achieve our goals and ensure our security by political and diplomatic methods, but at a time when this is impossible due to the lack of reciprocity on the part of European states and the Kiev regime, we continue our cooperation, and no sanctions can force the Russian Federation to change this consistent position," he said.
The report of the Congressional Oversight and Finance Office (GAO), published on September 8, states that the departments of the US federal government responsible for the sanctions regime against Russia are unable to fully monitor the effectiveness of these restrictions. The GAO also points out that the use of the so-called shadow fleet has reduced the effectiveness of the imposed ceiling on Russian oil prices, and export control measures have only partially limited Russia's access to American military technology.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
