EU Blacklists Russian Oil Majors

The European Union has introduced a new wave of sanctions targeting Russian companies and officials.

The latest batch, published in the EU Official Journal, banned debt financing for three Russian companies – Rosneft, Transneft and Gazprom Neft. The sanctions take effect from the moment of their publication. The EU has also banned debt financing for Russia’s three major defense
manufacturers – UralVagonZavod (UVZ), Oboronprom and United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). The ban relates to trading in bonds of these enterprises with maturity of more than 30 days and participation in the organization of such bonds’ issue. Nine defence companies have also been struck by the sanctions.

Namely, supplies of European dual-purpose technologies are banned for: the Sirius Concern, Stankoinstrument, Khimkompozit, the Kalashnikov Concern, the Tula Arms Plant, Technologii Mashinostroyeniya, Vysokotochnye Kompleksy, the Almaz-Antei Concern, and Bazalt. The European Union has added 24 more names to the blacklist, bringing the total number of sanctioned officials to 119.

The sanctions were agreed upon during the talks in Brussels and have been caused by Russia’s actions in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels reached a truce recently, but ceasefire is still fragile.