The EU Council today, March 15, in Brussels agreed on a fourth package of restrictive measures against Russia in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions "will further contribute to ramping up economic pressure on the Kremlin and cripple its ability to finance its invasion of Ukraine," the European Commission explained. The measures, which have been coordinated with the EU's international partners, notably the United States, include first and foremost a total ban on any transactions with certain Russian state-owned enterprises in various sectors linked to the Kremlin's military-industrial complex.
As anticipated at the end of last week, an import ban was introduced for steel products currently subject to EU safeguard measures. This will inflict losses of around €3.3 billion in lost export revenues on Russia. To compensate for the non-arrival of these steel products in the EU, import quotas allocated to other countries will be increased. The most important question is whether Russia will be able to export semi-finished products and, according to a Bloomberg report, although most finished steel products are included in the sanctions package, it seems that semi-finished products such as billet and slab are not subject to the sanctions. This means that Russian steelmaker NLMK's plants located in the EU will be able to receive slabs from Russia, SteelOrbis understands, though EU ports do not accept Russian ships.
A "wide-ranging" ban on new investments in the Russian energy sector has also been imposed, though "with limited exceptions for civil nuclear energy and the transport of certain energy products to the EU."
To directly target the Russian elites close to Putin, a ban on the export from the EU of luxury goods, such as cars and jewellery, was also introduced. In addition, the list of sanctioned persons and entities has been further extended to include new oligarchs and business elites linked to the Kremlin, as well as companies active in the military and defense areas, which logistically and materially support the invasion.
The EU has also banned credit rating companies in the EU from rating Russia and Russian companies and from providing rating services to Russian clients, resulting in Russian entities losing access to EU financial markets.