Consensus of all EU countries is needed: international expert Voitko on 11th sanctions package against Russia

He said this on Espreso TV. 

Commenting on the effects of the upcoming 11th package of sanctions from the EU, Voitko noted that it will be aimed at stopping the opportunities Russia is currently finding to circumvent these sanctions.

“I would like to start with the sanctions that were introduced in 2014. These were sanctions against Putin, against his inner circle, for the invasion of Donbas and the occupation of Crimea. These sanctions began then, but as we saw, not all of them worked, and even at the beginning of the full-scale aggression in February 2022, the weapons, planes, and tanks used by the Russian Federation unfortunately contained elements that came from the EU or third countries. That's why the main focus of this package will be to circumvent the loopholes that Russia is now finding to circumvent these sanctions, they need to be closed,” he said.

The diplomat added that there is currently a lot of information that some countries, including the EU, are not actively using the sanctions they have already imposed.

“For example, the Bulgarian Prosecutor General is launching an investigation into how Bulgaria is implementing these sanctions. As it turned out, there are many sanctions that this country has not yet implemented. Our European partners have certain claims against such an EU country as Cyprus. They have frozen USD 100 million of Russian assets, but much more may be frozen and then confiscated, as we hope. Through third countries, such as: India, Turkey, the UAE, these sanctions are being circumvented, and so now the EU wants to impose the same sanctions that the US has already imposed. That is, secondary sanctions, extraterritorial sanctions,” Voitko said.

The international expert also pointed out that there are not many opportunities for the EU and the G7 countries at the moment, as many sectors of the economy are already covered by these sanctions.

“For example, Germany, which shut down its nuclear power plants on April 15, wanted to impose sanctions against Rosatom, but France and its company want to continue this cooperation. Hungary is known for its position, there will be an expansion there, because the Russian side is planning to expand the Paks nuclear power plant, so these negotiations are very difficult, because there must be a consensus of all EU countries to impose sanctions on the same nuclear power industry,” he added.