EU likely to further prolong Russia sectoral sanctions

At last week’s G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina (30 November), the President of the EU Council, Donald Tusk, stated that given the recent “escalation in the Sea of Azov” of Russian forces against Ukrainian ships, he was “sure that the EU [would] roll over the sanctions against Russia in December”, namely, the measures targeting the financial, energy and defence sectors of the Russian economy (which are due to expire on 31 January 2019). No reference was made as to whether EU leaders were looking to increase the scope of these sanctions.

The sectoral sanctions were originally introduced in July 2014 (and strengthened in September 2014) for 1 year in response to Russia’s actions “destabilising the situation in Ukraine”. The sanctions have been renewed every 6 months since adoption.