New UE’s sanctions on Russia. There will be no nails, sewing needles nor the knitting accessories

Lithuania has proposed including in the 12th EU sanctions package a ban on deliveries to Russia: central heating radiators, nails, nuts, buttons, sewing needles and knitting wires - reported EUobserver.

The European Union has begun a closed-door discussion on the 12th sanctions package. Lithuania, Poland, and Estonia have presented their proposals. Vilnius and Warsaw believe that a ban on new transactions with Rosatom, purchases of Russian uranium, liquefied gas and steel is necessary.

In addition, it is proposed to block the provision of IT services for Russian companies. Meanwhile, Estonia is pushing for a total trade embargo. It turns out that these proposals have already been presented before.

According to EUobserver, efforts to make use of frozen Russian assets have accelerated. Hungary has promised not to provide financial assistance to Ukraine as long as their bank is on the Ukrainian "war sponsors" list, but even after its removal, problems remain. In EUobserver's opinion, Budapest wants some individuals to also be removed from the list, and Kiev has the assurance that such situation will not repeat.

As mentioned in Bloomberg, in the coming days the European Union will begin consultations on the 12th package of sanctions. This may include a ban on the import of Russian diamonds and new measures to prevent circumvention of existing restrictions. The list of goods subject to export bans to the Russian Federation may be extended.

After the Russian attack, the European Union imposed sanctions that were supposed to cover almost every branch of the economy ruled by Vladimir Putin. However, this did not happen, as shown by the analysis of experts from Allianz Research, as quoted by the portal wiadomoscihandlowe.pl.

After sanctions were imposed by EU countries, you can indeed see a decrease in exports to Russia itself. Allianz Trade points out that in the first half of 2023, the shipping of goods to the Russian Federation has decreased by 52 percent compared to the first half of 2019. However, there are alarming increases to countries that, together with Russia, form the Eurasian Economic Union. According to the data, during this period, exports from the EU to Turkey increased by an average of 58.1 percent. We can see even larger increases in the case of shipping goods to Asian countries. The value of EU exports to Kazakhstan has increased by 100 percent, to Kyrgyzstan - by 800 percent, to Tajikistan - by 151 percent, to Turkmenistan - by 78.5 percent, and to Uzbekistan - by 66.6 percent.

Although sanctions have been imposed on Belarus and Russia, according to the KAS, wood from the East is flowing to Europe from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. This is suggested by European data. They reveal that in 2022 there was an increase in wood imports from Kazakhstan by 9926.8 percent compared to the previous year. In addition, as estimated by the European Commission, the value of the wood sent amounts to about 43 million US dollars.