Will not cut off money flow to Russia: climate activist Romanko calls EU's 12th sanctions package insufficient

She spoke about this on Espreso TV.

"The 12th package of sanctions is not as effective as we had hoped, not as far-sighted as we had hoped, and the EU took too long and too slow to decide on this package of sanctions. We expected to see a ban on exports of fossil gas from Russia, which we call liquefied natural gas, a complete ban on the purchase, registration or insurance of tankers transporting oil or oil products from Russia at inflated prices, at prices that do not meet the oil price ceiling set by the G7 sanctions coalition, which includes the European Union as a large institutional union," Romanko explained.

According to her, these are positive but weak steps towards a complete ban on the export of Russian crude oil, its products and natural gas, which is currently flooding the EU's world markets.

"We pointed this out in our recent report to all EU energy ministers, who make up the Council of the European Union chaired by Charles Michel, and who, among other things, decide on sanctions packages. Diamonds are good, but not enough, restrictions on crude oil transportation are good, but too little, and these are weak steps that will not add to the effectiveness and determination to limit financial flows to Russia. I would like to say here that this is an important step, but we expected much stronger steps," said the founder and director of RAZOM WE STAND, organization calling for a total and permanent embargo on Russian fossil fuels and an immediate end to all investment in Russian oil and gas companies.

Romanko stressed that EU countries such as Belgium and Spain, which allegedly help Ukraine, are developing renewable energy as another sanction against the Russian criminal regime, while they are the largest exporters of liquefied natural gas. Greece also maintained Russia's shadow fleet and transshipped oil to blur its origin and sell it above the maximum price.

"We have analysed them in our report, all 11 packages, and when we look at the continuity of the process, we see that the EU is very slow to implement changes, including control and monitoring of compliance with these sanctions. The price ceiling on Russian crude oil and its products has been in place for a year now, but we see that Russia is actually getting richer from it. In the first few months, Russia's oil export revenues fell by 180 million, but then they jumped. Unfortunately, this shadow fleet, which is mostly registered or insured by EU countries, is still able to transport illegal, grey Russian oil," the expert added.