Exclusive: EU to sanction more Russian oligarchs, Belarus banks

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Item 1 of 2 Plastic letters arranged to read "Sanctions" are placed in front the flag colors of EU and Russia in this illustration taken February 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
[1/2]Plastic letters arranged to read "Sanctions" are placed in front the flag colors of EU and Russia in this illustration taken February 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
BRUSSELS, March 8 (Reuters) - The European Commission has prepared a new package of sanctions against Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine that will hit additional Russian oligarchs and politicians and three Belarusian banks, three sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
The draft sanctions were adopted by the EU executive on Tuesday morning and will be discussed by EU ambassadors at a meeting starting at 1400 GMT, one source said.
The draft package will ban three Belarusian banks from the SWIFT banking system and add several more oligarchs and Russian lawmakers to the EU blacklist, the sources told Reuters.
The package also bans exports from the EU of naval equipment and software to Russia and provides guidance on the monitoring of cryptocurrencies to avoid their use to circumvent EU sanctions, the sources said.
Moscow describes its actions in Ukraine as a "special operation" to disarm its neighbour and arrest leaders it calls "neo-Nazis". Ukraine and its Western allies call this a baseless pretext for an invasion to conquer a country of 44 million people. read more
EU diplomats have so far approved sanctions proposed by the EU Commission against Russia and Belarus without any changes.
The EU has already excluded seven Russian banks from SWIFT, but had not included Belarusian banks.
The sources declined to name the new lenders to be sanctioned.
One source said the package also listed oligarchs and members of Russia's Federation Council, which is the upper house of the Russian Parliament.
So far EU sanctions have hit hundreds of members of the lower house, the Duma, who voted in favour of Russia's recognition of the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
The EU will also expand its ban on EU exports of advanced technology to Russia, mostly supporting the ban on the export of maritime technology, the sources said.
The ban on the export of naval equipment and software to Russia is mainly meant to hit its shipping sector, one source said.

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Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio, Jan Strupczewski and John Chalmers Editing by Catherine Evans and Nick Macfie

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Francesco leads a team of reporters in Vietnam that covers top financial and political news in the fast-growing southeast Asian country with a focus on supply chains and manufacturing investments in several sectors, including electronics, semiconductors, automotive and renewables. Before Hanoi, Francesco worked in Brussels on EU affairs. He was also part of Reuters core global team that covered the COVID-19 pandemic and participated in investigations into money laundering and corruption in Europe. He is an eager traveler, always keen to put on a backpack to explore new places.

Thomson Reuters

Jan is the Deputy Bureau Chief for France and Benelux, running the Reuters office in Brussels. He has been covering European Union policy, focusing on economics, since 2005 after a five year assignment in Stockholm where he covered tech and telecoms stocks, the central bank and general news. Jan joined Reuters in 1993 in Warsaw from the main Polish TV news programme "Wiadomosci", where he was a reporter and anchor for the morning news edition. Jan won the Reuters Journalist of the Year award in 2007 in the Scoop of the Year category, a second time in 2010 for his coverage of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis and for the third time in 2011, this time as part of the Brussels team, for the Story of the Year. A Polish national, Jan graduated from Warsaw University with a Master’s in English literature. He is a keen sailor, photographer and bushcraft enthusiast.

Thomson Reuters

Award-winning journalist, leads a multimedia team covering EU affairs, NATO and news from both Belgium and the Netherlands. Previously editor for Southeast Asia, responsible for Reuters news coverage from 11 countries stretching from Indonesia to Indochina. Prior to that led Reuters editorial operations in India and the rest of the subcontinent, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, and was also Asia editor for political and general news, based in Singapore.

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