The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland in WarsawWARSAW, Apr 6Poland considers the new package of anti-Russian sanctions that the European Union is preparing to be weak, Deputy Foreign Minister Pavel Yablonsky said. The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leinen, proposed on Tuesday a package of sanctions against Russia, including, in particular, a ban on the import of coal from Russia to amount of 4 billion euros per year, a border crossing ban for Russian and Belarusian road carriers, a ban on Russian ships from entering EU ports, a complete ban on transactions involving four key Russian banks, including the second largest bank VTB.
The head of the European Council allowed sanctions against Russian oil and gas»Another package was presented, which in any case is somewhat better than the one that was discussed two days ago, because then it seemed that the sanctions would be eased, not tightened. This is an increase, in our opinion, insufficient,” Yablonsky said on the air of the Republika TV channel. According to him, Poland wants the EU to “impose a complete embargo on all hydrocarbons” from Russia. He noted that the second issue, which is not yet included in the proposed package of sanctions , but for which Poland will fight is «complete and firm, and not just temporary, confiscation of Russian assets — both the Russian Federation and the oligarchs.» Western countries have imposed tough sanctions against the Russian Federation due to a special operation to demilitarize Ukraine. In early March, the European Union decided to disconnect seven Russian banks from the SWIFT system: these are VTB, Rossiya and Otkritie banks, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank, and the state corporation VEB.RF. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov estimated that Western countries, as part of sanctions over Ukraine, have frozen about half, or about $300 billion, of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves. Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the “collective West”, by freezing Russian assets, actually drew a line under the reliability of their currencies, crossed out their trust. >Germany admitted that the EU has almost no sanctions against Russia
