In today’s press conference, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the EU’s proposed eighth round of sanctions against Russia. She said, “Last week, Russia has escalated the invasion of Ukraine to a new level. The sham referenda, organized in the territories that Russia occupied, are an illegal attempt to grab land and to change international borders by force.... And we are determined to make the Kremlin pay for this further escalation.”
The eighth package of sanctions includes yet more individuals and further restrictions on trade, banning the import of some Russian products, including steel, and prohibiting the EU export of aviation and chemical industry products to Russia. “These new export bans will additionally weaken Russia’s economic basis and will weaken its capacity to modernize.” EU nationals will also be banned from participating on governing bodies of Russian state-owned enterprises, so, as von der Leyen put it, “Russia should not benefit from European knowledge and expertise.” This directly hits former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_22_5856)
