IAS Current affairs - EU Sanctions on Russia

EU Sanctions On Russia

 

Context:

 

  • The EU agreed on Wednesday to add 160 Russian business people and lawmakers to its sanctions blacklist, target crypto-assets and hit the maritime sector over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, officials said.

 

About:

 

  • The 27-nation bloc also gave the go-ahead to cut three Belarusian banks from the global SWIFT messaging system over Minsk’s support for the Kremlin’s attack.
  • The EU is looking to close off loopholes in the unprecedented barrage of sanctions it unleashed along with Western allies after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion.
  • A statement said 146 members of Russia’s Upper House of Parliament and 14 Kremlin-linked business people and their relatives would be added to the assets freeze and visa ban blacklist.
  • The bloc will also broaden restrictions to cover cryptocurrencies in a bid to prevent sanctioned individuals and companies using the encrypted digital systems to circumvent the sanctions.
  • Kremlin ally Belarus has been used as a key launchpad for Moscow’s offensive and the EU is also stepping up measures against the country.

 

 

Global SWIFT messaging system:

 

  • The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication(SWIFT), legally W.I.F.T. SC, is a Belgian Cooperative Society providing services related to the execution of Financial Transactions and payments between banks worldwide.
  • Its principal function is to serve as the main messaging network through which international payments are initiated.
  • It also sells software and services to financial institutions, mostly for use on its proprietary “SWIFTNet”, popularly known as “SWIFT codes”.

Source: THE HINDU