EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen plans to extend Russian sanctions to the important Sberbank and is preparing a mechanism for an oil embargo. “We continue to look at the banking sector, especially Sberbank, which alone accounts for 37 percent of the Russian banking sector,” said von der Leyen of “Bild am Sonntag” on a sixth sanctions package. “And of course it’s regarding energy issues.”
The EU Commission is developing “smart mechanisms so that oil can also be included in the next sanctions step,” said von der Leyen. The primary goal is to shrink Russian income. It must be prevented that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin achieves even higher prices for oil deliveries on other markets that would otherwise go to the EU.
Von der Leyen emphasized that the punitive measures already in place once morest Moscow would work: “The sanctions are eating their way deeper into the Russian economy week by week.” Exports to Russia have collapsed by 70 percent, and gross domestic product in Russia will collapse by eleven percent. National bankruptcy is only a matter of time. “With this war, Putin is also destroying his own country and the future of its people.”
