RIGA, August 6 (RIA Novosti) - Latvian authorities do not understand how damaging is blind copying the United States’ and the European Union’s sanctions against Russia, Latvia’s former Foreign Minister Janis Jurkans said Tuesday.
“Our [Latvian] politicians do not understand that sanctions are like radiation. At first we do not feel it, then we check the contamination level on a daily basis, but it exists and will more and more affect the international affairs, and obviously the situation at home,” Jurkans said, adding that Latvia should not be copying the US and EU position.
In July, the United States and the European Union announced new economic sanctions against Russia amid the Ukrainian crisis. Moscow has repeatedly called such measures counterproductive and stressed that Russia was not one of the sides of Ukrainian conflict.
The European Union officially barred Russia’s biggest state-run banks - Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, Vnesheconombank and Rosselkhozbank — from raising financing on western capital markets. Sberbank is the only one of the five lenders that was put on the EU black list for the first time.
The sanctions prohibit the “direct or indirect purchase or sale of, the brokering or assistance in the issuance of, or any other dealing with bonds, equity or similar financial instruments with a maturity exceeding 90 days, issued after 1 August 2014” by major credit institutions or finance development institutions established in Russia with over 50 percent state ownership.
The restriction also applies to majority-owned subsidiaries of the five blacklisted banks established outside the union and, as well as to any legal person, entity or body acting on behalf or at the direction of the targeted institutions.
The first round of sanctions against Russian officials and entities was implemented by the United States and the European Union back in March as a response to Crimea’s reunification with Russia following a referendum. Moscow has repeatedly said that such measures are counterproductive.
