The EU has announced that it has adopted new sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, with diplomats claiming that the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was among the individuals listed.
The EU presidency, currently held by France, tweeted that the ambassadors of the bloc’s 27 member nations approved a fourth package of sanctions, hitting individuals and companies ‘implicated in the assault on Ukraine’.
Their names were to be made public in a ‘quick’ publication of the EU’s Official Journal legally announcing all the European Union’s decisions, it said, adding that the sanctions were worked out in concert with Western partners.
Read Also: Putin Seeks Foreigners To Join In Fight Against Ukraine
The EU’s move against Abramovich follows those of Britain and Canada, which last week put him on their own sanctions lists. London’s decision suspended Abramovich’s hasty attempt to sell Chelsea, which was announced March 2.
According to one of the EU diplomats, the stated reason for sanctioning Abramovich was because he ‘is a Russian oligarch who has long and close ties to (Russian President) Vladimir Putin,’ to whom he has “privileged access”.
He is seen as providing ‘a substantial source of revenue’ to Russia’s government.
On the weekend, Abramovich’s 140-metre-long (460-foot-long) superyacht Solaris was spotted arriving at a port in Montenegro, which is not part of the EU but has ambitions to join it. The vessel left the Spanish port of Barcelona days earlier.
Abramovich, 55, has a fortune worth $12.4 billion (11.3 billion euros), according to Forbes magazine, and is rumoured to own half a dozen yachts. He has also acquired Portuguese and Israeli nationalities.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen last Friday, after an EU summit in France, heralded the latest round of sanctions agreed with partner nations, saying it will ‘further isolate Russia and drain the resources it uses to finance this barbaric war’.
Russia’s gross domestic product is forecast to shrink dramatically under the successive rounds of sanctions imposed by the EU and US and their allies, which target the Russian central bank and companies including airlines.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK