Ukraine will appeal to the European Union next week to adopt new large-scale measures to isolate Russia, including the seizure of assets, the imposition of secondary sanctions against buyers of Russian oil and changes to the voting procedure for sanctions.

Source: Reuters

Details: The Ukrainian government plans to present the EU with a white paper containing proposals for a more radical sanctions policy by the bloc against Russia. Among the key recommendations are the seizure of Russian assets followed by their transfer to Ukraine and the imposition of secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian oil, including foreign companies helping the Kremlin to bypass existing restrictions.

Quote: "Such secondary sanctions, which could hit big buyers such as India and China, would be a major step that Europe has so far been reluctant to take. Trump had publicly discussed this before taking the decision not to act for now."

Details: The 40-page document, which is to be delivered to the 27 EU member states, emphasises the need for a "more aggressive and independent position" in sanctions policy. In particular, it proposes changing the rules for adopting sanctions decisions by shifting from the principle of unanimity to majority voting, to avoid the blockage of decisions by individual countries.

The white paper also contains a critical assessment of current US policy. In particular, it notes that US President Donald Trump's administration has effectively withdrawn from the coordination of international sanctions efforts.

"Today, in practice, Washington has ceased participation in nearly all intergovernmental platforms focused on sanctions and export control," the document states.

Quote: "Washington had slowed work in the monitoring group for enforcing price caps on Russian oil, dissolved a federal taskforce focused on prosecuting sanctions violations and reassigned a significant number of sanctions experts to other sectors."

"Uncertainty over the US stance had slowed the pace of economic countermeasures and multilateral coordination, but 'should not prompt the European Union to ease sanctions pressure', it said. 'On the contrary, it should catalyse the EU to assume a leading role in this domain.'"

Details: Although the EU is not capable of fully compensating for the impact of US sanctions due to the dominance of the dollar in global trade, experts believe that a firm European stance could deter investors from returning to Russia, even in the event of weakening US pressure.

"Europe holds a lot more cards than you'd think," said Craig Kennedy, a Russian energy expert at the Harvard Davis Center.

Background:

• Following his conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Monday 19 May, Trump refused to impose new sanctions against Russia, dashing the hopes of European leaders and Ukraine, who had spent weeks urging him to increase pressure on Putin.
• On Tuesday 20 May, the EU and the United Kingdom nevertheless imposed additional sanctions on Russia, stating that they still hoped Washington would join them.
• As reported by European Pravda, the 18th package of sanctions against Russia, which the EU has started working on, may include restrictions on banks from non-EU countries that support the Russian defence industry and army, in addition to Russian banks.

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