The European Union is waiting to see the impact of a series of sanctions on Russia before imposing more, but is working on other measures that could include cryptocurrencies, officials said Thursday.
The EU’s chief executive said the bloc would take additional action against Moscow if the situation in Ukraine deteriorates further after Russia’s invasion of the country last week.
“Our aim is to reduce the Kremlin’s ability to wage war against its neighbors,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after a meeting with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
The 27-member bloc passed a series of financial, energy, export and travel restrictions since last week.
These include freezing Russian central bank assets, closing EU airspace to Russia, removing several Russian banks from the Swift international payments system, and sanctioning a group of Russian tycoons.
“We still have a lot of ideas on how we can move forward with the work when it comes to sanctions, whether it be in trade, in the energy sector, in exports, in maritime transport,” said an EU official on condition of anonymity.
“So it’s being worked on as we speak. But I believe the spirit now is to see the implementation and the effect of what we have done so far.”
A second EU official said that while the bloc hopes its sanctions will “bite,” there is ongoing analysis on how to target Russian crypto assets and work on how to “ensure Belarus cannot be used as a loophole” by Russians to circumvent sanctions.
Source: CNN Brasil
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