PRAGUE, September 2 (RIA Novosti) - New sanctions that are currently being developed by the European Commission may include widening of restrictive measures in the field of technology exports to be used in exploration and oil extraction, including maintenance of the technical expert groups working on ongoing projects, Czech news agency CTK reported Tuesday.
According to the news agency, Czech government received the draft list of new sanctions today.
Other proposed measures include an expansion of an export ban on goods that can have both military and civilian use; banning syndicated EU loans to Russian government-owned banks and institutions; widening of a ban to borrow or raise capital in Europe to all Russian state-owned firms, and other measures.
The European Commission is to prepare a final draft of new sanctions against Moscow by Wednesday, and the EU leaders are supposed to take a final decision on sanctions implementation by Friday.
Earlier today, Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said that Prague will submit comments on the new European Union’s sanctions proposal, as they could trigger high economic losses for his country. According to Sobotka, “escalation of sanctions is a very risky business.”
Over the past few months, the United States and the European Union introduced several rounds of targeted sanctions against the Russian economy, unjustifiably blaming Moscow for meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs.
As the Ukrainian crisis escalated, the United States persuaded its allies to add Russian individuals and entities to their own blacklists.
On August 30, at the EU Summit in Brussels, European leaders urged the European Commission to create proposals for new economic sanctions against Russia within one week.
In August, Moscow was pushed to introduce protective measures banning for a year the import of agricultural and food products from countries that had imposed sanctions on Russia.
Russia has repeatedly referred to the language of sanctions “counterproductive,” saying that such measures “threaten international peace and stability.”
