Poland banned the import of coal from Russia

Coal train. File photoWARSAW, Apr 15Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a law allowing to freeze the assets of business entities that support Russia and introducing a ban on the import of coal from the Russian Federation, the office of the Polish leader reports. Western countries have begun to introduce new anti-Russian sanctions in response to the Russian special operation to demilitarize Ukraine. As the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said, the Western sanctions are very serious, but Russia was preparing for them in advance. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that Moscow would solve all the problems created for it by the West with the economy. As the office of the Polish leader says, «the president signed the law on special measures to protect national security,» the document is related to the events in Ukraine. Earlier, the law was adopted by both houses of the Polish parliament. The law involves the freezing of funds and other assets of individuals and legal entities that will be included in a special list, it will be maintained by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the administration of Poland. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will replenish this list on his own or at the request of the special services and other government bodies.The EU countries want to adopt a phased ban on Russian oil, the media write. Presenting the draft law to the deputies, Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wonsik explained that the Polish side would maintain the list independently, it would be wider than the sanctions imposed on Russian business entities by the European Union. He explained that In addition to freezing assets and depriving them of the right to dispose of them, firms and individuals included in the list will not be able to participate in state tenders, and persons who fall into the list will be deprived of the right to enter Poland. In addition, the law introduces a ban on coal imports to Poland from Russia. This also applies to private firms. Violation of this ban will be punished up to imprisonment. 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. >Putin commented on the situation with Russian energy suppliers