$27m boat impounded after EU blacklists owner Alexei Mordashov following Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine
Italian police have seized a yacht owned by Alexei Mordashov, the richest man in Russia before being blacklisted this week by the European Union following Moscow’s attack on Ukraine.
The 65-metre (215-ft) “Lady M” was impounded in the northern Italian port of Imperia.
Continue reading...Suddenly, brutally, the invasion of Ukraine has taken member states back to the founding principle of the European project
Interpreters in the European parliament usually sound so monotonous and mechanical that even well-rested listeners have trouble staying awake. But when the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed a parliamentary session via video link on Tuesday, something extraordinary happened: the person relaying his words into English was so moved that he audibly fought to hold back his tears. “We’re fighting … just for our land … and for our freedom,” he said, then sniffed, his voice almost breaking as Zelenskiy, wearing a khaki T-shirt in what looked like a bunker, declared: “Despite the fact … that all our cities of our country are now blocked … nobody is going to enter and intervene with the freedom and our country.”
This is just one example among many, of how Vladimir Putin’s brutal war on Ukraine is shaking Europeans to the core. Having long believed that war was impossible on the continent, they are shocked – and embarrassed – that Ukrainians must not only defend their country against Russian aggression, but must also defend democracy, freedom and the right of sovereign states to determine their destiny – the very principles that underpin the European Union.
Caroline de Gruyter is a Europe correspondent and columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, and Foreign Policy
Continue reading...More than 1 million people have already crossed the border, with numbers set to rise as the Russian invasion intensifies. What has been the response of neighbouring countries?
What is the expected scale of the refugee crisis in Ukraine?
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could see the “largest refugee crisis this century”, the UN refugee agency has warned, with up to 4 million people fleeing the country in the coming weeks and months.
Continue reading...Despite nearly a third of shark species nearing extinction, Spain supplied 51,000 tonnes of shark fins from 2003-20, says IFAW
European countries are selling so many shark fins to Asia that they dominate nearly half the trade, a study has found.
Shark populations continue to decline, driven by the global shark fin trade. Last year, scientists found a third of sharks and ray species have been overfished to near-extinction, jeopardising the health of entire ocean ecosystems and food security for many countries.
Continue reading...Analysis: There is significant sympathy in the bloc for President Zelenskiy’s cause, but it may lead to no more than warm words
In his latest video address to the nation on Wednesday morning, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was seeking to erase Ukraine, its history and people as he reiterated his appeal for the EU to fast-track its membership application: “This is no time to be neutral.”
There is an urgency to the Ukrainian president’s calls and, naturally, as images of the carnage in Ukraine’s cities beam back to Brussels, there is significant sympathy with his cause.
Continue reading...During an emergency session of the European parliament, Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the EU via video link to 'prove that you are with us' as Ukraine defends itself against an onslaught from Russia, a day after Kyiv officially asked to join the bloc. EU lawmakers, many bearing the Ukrainian flag, gave Zelenskiy a standing ovation. The Ukrainian president has remained in Kyiv to rally his people against the invasion. As he spoke on Tuesday, a Russian armoured column was bearing down on the capital
Continue reading...Sergei Roldugin, 71, formerly a high-profile orchestra cellist, is one of 26 new additions to 680-strong list
A Russian oligarch, who is part of a financial network known as ‘Putin’s wallet’ in Moscow, according to the EU, is one of 26 businessmen, officials and military figures who have been added to the bloc’s expanding sanctions list.
Sergei Roldugin, 71, the former principal cellist of the Kirov Opera Theatre’s orchestra in the 1980s and godfather to Putin’s eldest daughter, Maria, is among those who it is claimed are threatening the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Continue reading...Negotiations come as western nations agree to send advanced arms to Ukraine and rouble enters free fall
Russian rocket attacks killed “dozens” of people in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv as officials from both countries met for ceasefire talks, with Moscow facing unprecedented western sanctions that it said had created “a new economic reality”.
The Élysée Palace said after a call between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin that the Russian president had said he was “willing to commit” to ending attacks on civilians and civil infrastructure while the talks were taking place.
Continue reading...Analysis: Images of war, US and UK allies and Volodymyr Zelenskiy have all helped create a new political necessity
A bonfire of EU shibboleths on the economy, conflict, finance, energy supply, migration, and even the bloc’s future shape and size, has been lit by the conflict raging in Ukraine.
Battlefield images, the leadership of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has framed the war as being between European democracy and brute bullying power, and the challenge of coordinating with UK and US allies who are pushing for more while having less to lose, has created a new political necessity.
Continue reading...We look at different economic measures deployed around world to counter aggression from Putin
Countries around the world have imposed an unprecedented array of economic and other sanctions on Russia after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, targeting its finance, energy and military-industrial sectors as well as individuals and sporting events.
Here are some of the measures adopted by the US, EU and UK, with countries including Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand all taking similar steps:
The EU, US, UK and Canada have agreed to prevent the Russian central bank from deploying its €640bn (£540bn) of international reserves “in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions”.
The EU has banned all transactions with the institution. The US has done the same, and added the Russian finance ministry and national wealth fund. The Russian state has, in effect, been banned from raising sovereign debt; shares of Russian state-owned entities may no longer be listed on EU stock exchanges.
A range of Russian banks – their names have not yet been announced – are also being cut out of the Swift international payments system by the EU, US, UK and Canada. Brussels has said this will “stop them from operating worldwide, and effectively block Russian exports and imports”.
The US has placed Russia’s top 10 financial institutions, representing about 80% of the country’s banking sector, under restrictions, including cutting off the biggest – Sberbank, which accounts for about 30% of Russian banking – and its subsidiaries from conducting transactions through the US system.
The assets of many other Russian banks, including VTB, the country’s second largest, Bank Rossiya and Promsvyazbank, have also been hit with strict asset freezes and/or new business restrictions in the EU, UK, US and elsewhere.
The foreign assets of the Russian president, his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, have been frozen in the EU, US and UK, as have those of the FSB security head, Alexander Bortnikov, the armed forces chief, Valery Gerasimov, and members of the Kremlin’s security council. The EU has imposed sanctions on all 351 members of Russia’s parliament, the Duma; the US and UK are punishing selected members as are Australia, Japan and New Zealand.
More than a dozen billionaire oligarchs with ties to Putin’s regime, including Andrey Patrushev (oil company Rosneft), Petr Fradkov (Promsvyazbank), Yury Slyusar (United Aircraft), Boris Rotenberg (gas pipeline company SMP), Denis Bortnikov (VTB bank) and Kirill Shamalov, ex-husband of Putin’s daughter Katarina, are on asset freeze and travel ban lists around the world. The US is also sanctioning top state-owned bank executives from VTB and Sberbank. Canada and Australia have also imposed sanctions on multiple oligarchs.
The UK has imposed a £50,000 limit on bank accounts held by Russian nationals in the UK), and the EU a limit of €100,000 in EU banks.
Russian airlines and private jets have been progressively banned from UK and EU airspace and the US is considering similar action but has yet to make a final decision. Aeroflot has said it will cancel all flights to European destinations; multiple European airlines have said they are halting routes to Russia.
The US has in effect banned the Russian energy company Gazprom, the oil pipeline company Transneft, and the power company RusHydro, as well as the country’s biggest freight, rail and telecoms companies, from its credit markets.
The EU has introduced a ban on exports of aircraft and aviation parts to Russia, as well as exports of hi-tech goods including semiconductors, computers, telecoms and information security equipment and sensors. UK and EU-based companies are also banned from exporting to a wide range of Russian defence, naval, transport and communications companies, including the infamous Internet Research Agency troll farm in St Petersburg.
The Uefa Champions League final has been removed from St Petersburg to Paris.
Fifa and Uefa have suspended Russian clubs and national teams from all competitions.
The Formula One grand prix and all World Cup skiing events in Russia have been cancelled.
Russia has been banned from taking part in the Eurovision song contest.
Continue reading...Ursula von der Leyen says stations will ‘no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war’
The EU has announced it will ban the Russian state-backed channels RT and Sputnik in an unprecedented move against the Kremlin media machine.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war and to sow division in our union. So we are developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe.”
Continue reading...Projects in jeopardy as EU revokes millions in grant offers after failure of trade talks
British science is facing the threat of a highly damaging brain drain that could see scores of top young researchers leaving the UK. In addition, the futures of several major British-led international projects are also now in jeopardy following a delay in funding by the European Union.
Senior scientists say the UK’s scientific standing is at serious risk while others have warned that major programmes – including medical projects aimed at tackling global scourges such as malaria – face cancellation.
Continue reading...Selected Russian banks banned from global payments system, while Russian central bank will find it harder to spend $500bn war chest
It has taken a week to reach this point, but western governments have put down their peashooters and wheeled out the financial howitzers against Vladimir Putin.
Far-reaching new sanctions against Russia were announced on Saturday night in a joint statement from the EU, UK, US and Canada.
Continue reading...Analysis: whether tapping other suppliers or switching energy sources, there is no quick and easy option to loosen Putin’s economic grip
As Boris Johnson told parliament that Europe must wean itself off Russian gas – to loosen Vladimir Putin’s “grip on western politics” – the Nikolay Zubov tanker was making its way back from British waters to the port of Sabetta, in northern Siberia.
The 300m-long vessel had recently dropped off a consignment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Isle of Grain terminal, in the Thames Estuary, operated by the National Grid.
Continue reading...Move is largely symbolic but part of attempt to highlight resolve to stand up to Russia over Ukraine
The EU, the US, the UK and Canada have moved to freeze foreign-held assets of Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, after Europe was accused by Ukraine’s president of failing to act hard and fast enough against Russian aggression.
The initiative is largely symbolic, as the Russian president is unlikely to have identifiable personal wealth abroad, but the move followed recognition that appeals for action from Volodymyr Zelenskiy had to be heard.
Continue reading...Ukraine foreign minister voices anger as EU leaders likely to decide against blocking Russia from international payments system
The EU faced furious remonstrations from Kyiv as Europe’s leaders looked set to hold back from imposing the potentially most damaging sanction on Russia, even as the Kremlin lay siege to Ukraine via land, air and sea.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, voiced his anger as EU heads of state and government appeared likely to decide against blocking Russia from an international payments system through which it receives foreign currency.
Continue reading...Blow to UK nationals as advocate general finds against Alice Bouilliez, who objected to losing voting rights
The European court of justice has been advised that British nationals living on the continent do not keep the advantages of EU citizenship now the UK has left the bloc, in a blow to campaigners fighting to keep more of their rights after Brexit.
Anthony Collins, an Irish advocate general at the court, said in an opinion published on Thursday that British nationals “who enjoyed the benefits of union citizenship do not retain those advantages following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU”.
Continue reading...The EU's foreign policy head, Josep Borrell, said as Russia launched an invasion in Ukraine on Thursday that it was 'among the darkest hours for Europe since the end of world war two'.
Russian forces have unleashed the attack on the orders of Vladimir Putin, who announced a 'special military operation' at dawn, as world leaders warned it could spark the biggest war in Europe since 1945.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said there would be 'massive and targeted sanctions' against Russia
Continue reading...Analysis: The west will adopt step-by-step approach, leaving toughest sanctions as last resort
After all the tough talk of the past month, the sanctions imposed on Russia by the west are unlikely to lose Vladimir Putin much sleep. The response to Boris Johnson’s announcement that five of the less important Russian banks and three individuals would be targeted was: is that it?
The most dramatic news was Germany’s decision to halt approval of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to western Europe. That will have an impact, but may end up affecting Germany more than it does Russia.
Continue reading...Three biggest groups in European parliament support possible move to high-risk list for money laundering
All three of the largest groups in the European parliament are demanding that the EU assess whether Switzerland should be categorised as a high-risk country for money laundering and financial crime, as reaction to the Credit Suisse leak continues to reverberate about the world.
Less than 48 hours after the Guardian and other media published an investigation into the leak as part of the Suisse secrets project, political groups representing the majority of MEPs in the European parliament support the possible blacklisting of Switzerland.
Continue reading...