The Council of the European Union extended all anti-Russian sanctions imposed because of the conflict in Ukraine. This was announced on January 27 by the press service of the council.
Thus, sanctions against certain sectors of the Russian economy have been extended until July 31.
It is noted that sanctions, first introduced in 2014 in response to Russia’s destabilizing actions in Ukraine, have been significantly expanded since February 2022.
Earlier in the day, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Hungary intends to prevent the imposition of European Union (EU) sanctions on Russian nuclear energy.
In addition, Orban indicated that Hungary’s losses due to EU sanctions against Russia will amount to about €10 billion by the end of 2022. According to him, this is almost the same as the total personal income tax paid by all citizens of Hungary.
Prior to that, on January 25, Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the President of Ukraine, said that the Ukrainian authorities were planning to hold a summit in the country on the issue of sanctions against Russia. According to the Ukrainian politician, the next steps against the Russian Federation should concern the visa area. In particular, he hopes to introduce a ban on entry into other countries of the Russian military and members of their families. He also said that Kyiv will try to achieve increased sanctions against Russian banks and will concentrate on the IT sector and the energy complex.
On January 23, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that the adoption of a new, tenth, package of sanctions against Russia would be a “huge mistake”, since previous restrictions had led Europe to a dead end.
On January 21, Vasily Koltashov, head of the New Society Institute’s center for political economy research, said that Western attempts to “turn off” Russia from the world economy had the opposite effect and had a negative impact on the European Union (EU).
The European Union introduced the ninth package of sanctions against Russia on December 16, 2022. This package of anti-Russian sanctions introduced, among other things, new controls and restrictions on the export of goods and technologies that can contribute to the technological improvement of the Russian defense and security sector.
Moscow has repeatedly spoken about the boomerang effect of anti-Russian sanctions. On December 15, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Europe, trying to hit Russia economically, harmed itself first of all, and anti-Russian sanctions caused a jump in inflation in Europe.
Western countries have tightened anti-Russian sanctions in response to Russia’s special operation to protect Donbass, which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022. The decision was made against the background of the aggravation of the situation in the region as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian military.