Russia expands entry bans against EU officials over latest sanctions packages
Russia said it has ‘significantly expanded’ its list of European Union officials and Western nationals banned from entering the country in retaliation for the bloc’s 17th and 18th sanctions packages, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow announced.
The expanded entry bans target ‘representatives of EU institutions, EU member states, and other European countries that have aligned themselves with Brussels’ anti-Russia agenda’, the ministry said Tuesday, describing the EU sanctions as ‘unilateral and illegitimate restrictive measures against Russia, which violate international law’.
Moscow imposed the retaliatory measures following the E.U.’s adoption of its 17th sanctions package on 20 May and 18th package on 18 July, with the latter including unprecedented restrictions such as a dynamic oil price cap and the bloc’s first-ever ban on Nord Stream pipelines.
The blacklist includes law enforcement agencies, government and commercial organisations, and citizens from EU member countries involved in ‘supplying military aid to Kiev, facilitating deliveries of dual-purpose products to Ukraine’ and ‘engaging in activities aimed at undermining Russia’s territorial integrity’.
Russian authorities also targeted those ‘organising blockades against Russian vessels and cargo in the Baltic Sea’ and individuals involved in ‘politically motivated prosecution of Russian officials for alleged “illegal detentions and deportations from Ukrainian territory”‘.
The ministry specifically cited EU representatives supporting creation of a ‘so-called “tribunal” against the Russian leadership’ and advocates of ‘confiscating Russian state assets or redirecting revenues from them to the benefit of the Kiev regime’.
Academic figures and ‘outspoken Russophobic activists’ were included alongside ‘individuals responsible for drafting or enforcing anti-Russia sanctions’ and EU and European Parliament deputies who voted for anti-Russia resolutions.
The EU’s 18th sanctions package marked a significant escalation in restrictions, replacing the fixed $60 oil price cap with a dynamic mechanism that prices Russian oil at least 15% below global benchmarks, currently standing at $47.60 per barrel.
The package also sanctioned 105 additional shadow fleet vessels, bringing the total number of EU-designated tankers to over 400, while targeting Chinese banks for the first time in an unprecedented move against third-country financial institutions facilitating sanctions evasion.
‘These hostile, anti-Russia actions will have no impact on our national policy,’ the Foreign Ministry said. ‘Russia will continue to defend its national interests and promote the emergence of a new, just world order.’
The ministry warned that ‘any future EU sanctions will be met with a timely and proportionate response’, signaling Moscow’s intention to escalate retaliatory measures in step with Western restrictions.
The tit-for-tat measures underscore the deepening confrontation between Russia and the West over the Ukraine conflict, with both sides escalating economic warfare through expanding sanctions and counter-sanctions regimes.
The ministry in Moscow did not immediately name the persons or organisations it has banned in its latest action.
