EU extends sanctions on Putin 'cronies'

EU states have decided to extend the life of blacklists of Russians and Ukrainians deemed responsible for the Ukraine conflict or for plundering Ukraine’s treasury.

Ambassadors, at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday (2 March), said visa bans and asset freezes on 149 people and 37 entities deemed responsible for violating Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” will stay in force for six more months.

Asset freezes on 16 people named for “misappropriation” of Ukrainian state funds will stay in place for another year.

The lists will be tweaked to take note of minor developments.

Three people on the “territorial integrity” list have died since the last time the EU updated the file, including a Russian spy chief, Igor Sergun. One person on the “misappropriation” list, former Ukrainian health minister Raisa Bohatyriova, will get off because, EU sources say, she has returned stolen money.

But Wednesday’s decision means all the big names will remain persona non grata in Europe.

The roll-call includes: Russian deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin; Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov; senior Kremlin aides Sergey Glazyev and Vladislav Surkov; and Kremlin security chiefs Mikhail Fradkov, Aleksandr Bortnikov, Boris Gryzlov, and Sergei Beseda.

It includes senior Russian MPs such as Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin and firebrand nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, as well as a TV anchorman, Dmitry Kiselyov, listed for propaganda activities.

It also includes personal friends and what EU officials call the oligarch “cronies” of Russian leader Vladimir Putin: Arkady Rotenberg; Konstantin Malofeev; Yuriy Kovalchuk; and Nikolay Shamalov.

On the Ukrainian side, it includes former president Viktor Yanukovych and former PM Mykola Azarov.

EU Council lawyers are currently drafting the legal acts for the extension. The formal decision is to be taken, without further dicussion, by EU interior ministers meeting in Brussels on 4 March.

The EU, in January, already decided to extend the duration of the more painful economic sanctions on Russia until late July.

’Remarkable unity’

An EU contact said just one out of the 28 EU states voiced doubts on the extension in Wednesday’s talks. But the source declined to name which one.

“The sanctions were extended because nothing has changed in the situation on the ground. What we saw in the [ambassadors’] meeting was quite a remarkable show of unity,” the contact said.

Several of the big names - including Rotenberg, Yanukovych, and Azarov - are pursuing lawsuits against the EU in the courts in Luxembourg.

Five of them, including Azarov, in January won a legal challenge against their 2014 listing on grounds of lack of evidence. But they’re still designated because each subsequent EU decision, as in 2015 or next week, is legally autonomous.

“The court cases were taken into account in the talks. But they didn’t change anything,” the EU contact said.

Political meaning

Russia has admitted to using special forces in Crimea and in east Ukraine. But it has also denied any large-scale military intervention, despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary.

When France and Germany, on behalf of the EU, negotiated the so-called Minsk and Minsk 2 ceasefire accords they bowed to Russia’s claims by making reference to “foreign” instead of Russian forces on Ukrainian territory.

But the relisting of people like Surkov and Bortnikov indicates that, behind the scenes, no one really believes Putin’s claims.

The relisting of Yanukovych and Azarov also indicates that recent corruption scandals in Kiev have not yet undermined EU resolve.

But Wednesday’s decision does come amid a fresh choir of EU voices calling for a reconciliation with Russia despite the ongoing Ukraine conflict.

When Hungarian PM Viktor Orban i met Putin in Moscow on 17 February he said: “This year, by the middle of the year, there will be no easy way to prolong sanctions. More and more countries share this opinion.”

An EU source noted that Putin has also invited European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker to go to a business forum in St Petersburg in June.

“it’s not yet decided if he will go … there’s no decision on that,” the source said.