Brussels proposes to paralyze the assets of the Central Bank of Russia

The European Commission will propose to the countries of the European Union a new battery of sanctions against Moscow which will include paralyzing the assets of the Central Bank of Russiaexclude several Russian banks from the Swift system of interbank payments and prevent Russian oligarchs from using their assets in European markets.

“All these measures will significantly impair the ability of Putin to finance his war. They will have an erosive impact on the economy. Putin he embarked on a path destined to destroy Ukraine, but what he is also doing, in fact, is destroying the future of his own country”, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a live statement tonight.

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The measures, which the president of the Community Executive considered “a significant hardening of the international response” to the russian invasion of Ukrainewill be implemented in close coordination with the leaders of the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom, it added.

Right after his speech, the leaders of the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States issued a joint statement in which they promised to coordinate in the adoption of restrictive economic measures against Russia.

The paralysis of the assets of the Central Bank of Russia, said Von der Leyenwill freeze the transactions of the entity “to the point of making it impossible for the Central Bank to liquidate its assets”, which will prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin, “Use your war fund.”

On the other hand, the exclusion of “certain Russian banks” of the system SWIFT will guarantee, assured the German, its “disconnection from the international financial system and will impair its ability to operate globally.”

“We are also committed to removing other Russian banks from SWIFT as appropriate. Swift It is the dominant global interbank payment system in the world. The exclusion of the banks will prevent them from conducting most of their financial transactions around the world and will effectively block Russian exports and imports.”affected Von der Leyen.

“We will work to prohibit Russian oligarchs from using their financial assets in our markets,” added the Commission president.

The objective of these new measures is “continue to impose costs on Russia that further isolate it from the international financial system and Western economies”, as well as “crippling the ability to Putin to finance their war machine.

This declaration of Von der Leyen It came just one hour after the high representative of the Foreign Policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, announced the call for an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) this Sunday by videoconference, in which the proposals announced tonight would have to receive the go-ahead from the Member States.

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Borrell convened, in principle, the meeting of the heads of the Twenty-seven diplomacies to study “an emergency aid package for the Ukrainian armed forces, to support them in their heroic struggle,” he specified on his official Twitter account.

The summons of Borrell comes on the same day that the Russian army was ordered to launch an offensive in all directions in Ukraine to gain complete control of the country as soon as possible, while the Ukrainian army tries to resist and keep the capital, Kiev, where President Volodimir Zelenski remains, who continues to encourage resistance to the invader.

Russia, said von der Leyen, “is bombing and launching missile attacks, killing innocent people; at the same time, the whole world is witnessing the determined and courageous resistance of the Ukrainian army and population”.

This is the fourth time that the ministers of the branch will meet this week, after a first ordinary meeting on Monday in Brussels and an extraordinary one on Tuesday in Paris.

These two meetings, both in person, were held to respond with an initial package of sanctions to the Russian recognition of the independence of the self-proclaimed separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

It was a list of restrictions against people and entities that came into force on the night of that same Wednesday, shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday.

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The third meeting was held yesterday, Friday, in Brussels to give the green light to new sanctions against Russia, which had been agreed on Thursday night by the Community Heads of State and Government at an emergency summit also held in person in the Belgian capital. .

These measures came into force last night, after their publication in the Official Gazette of the EU, and finally included the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and several members of his government, including the prime minister, Mikhail Mishustina, and the head of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, on the list of individual sanctions that, since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, already includes 654 people and 52 entities.

If the foreign ministers give the green light tomorrow to the three proposals presented tonight by the European Commission, the EU will add three consecutive packages of sanctions in just five days, restrictive measures that have been gradually increasing in intensity.

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Source: Elcomercio

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