Reuters learned that the EU closed the loophole that allowed the sale of weapons to Russia

The EU, as part of the fifth round of sanctions, lifted an exception to the arms embargo relating to old contracts, REUTERS learned. According to him,

The European Union has finally closed the possibility of exporting weapons to RUSSIA for its member states, citing diplomats and EU officials, Reuters reported.

The European Union imposed an arms embargo in 2014, after Crimea became part of Russia. However, the sanctions contained an exception that allowed the sale of weapons under contracts signed before August 2014. According to the agency, it allowed European countries to EXPORT weapons to Russia "for tens of millions of euros", despite the ban.

On April 8, the European Union lifted this ban as part of the fifth round of sanctions against Russia, Reuters learned. According to the agency, the abolition is spelled out in a legal document published in the official journal of the EU, but the European Commission did not mention this in a public announcement about the new restrictions.

Lithuania announced work on a new package of EU sanctions against Russia Politics

According to Reuters, European Commission officials responsible for preparing the sanctions did not propose an amendment to cancel old contracts, because it was not clear whether all participating countries would support it. However, changes were made last week after criticism from the governments of several states, including Poland and Lithuania, the diplomats present at the meeting told the agency.

According to the European Commission, EU countries sold €39 million ($42.3 million) worth of weapons to Russia last year, one and a half times more than in 2020, when the amount was €25 million, which was in line with previous years. One of the largest exporters, according to Reuters, were France and Germany.

The fifth package of EU sanctions in question includes a wider embargo on Russian coal imports than before, for €8 billion, as well as a ban on the export to Russia of a wide range of products, including plants, photographic film, printing ink, paper, some turbines. and engines and even particle accelerators. The ban on the import of petrochemical equipment was also expanded, including for LNG projects.

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Three days after the introduction of these sanctions, on April 11, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis announced that the EU had begun work on the sixth package, it is planned to include options related to oil supplies .

The Russian Foreign Ministry called Western sanctions illegal and promised to respond to them. Dmitry Birichevsky, DIRECTOR of the agency's department of economic cooperation, warned that Russia is quite strongly integrated into the global economy and that the "double-edged sanctions weapon" will affect all countries of the world.

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