The European Council said on March 12 it will prolong individual sanctions against Russia by six months for its occupation of Crimea and subsequent military intervention in Ukraine’s Donbas.
Since March 2014, the European Union has progressively applied restrictive measures, including economic, diplomatic and individual sanctions against Russia, in response to the Kremlin’s military occupation of Crimea and destabilization of eastern Ukraine.
The individual measures first introduced took the form of assets freezes and travel bans. They will be in force until September 15, 2018.
The council’s decision was published on its website.
“An assessment of the situation did not justify a change in the sanctions regime,” the statement on the website reads.
The sanctions apply to 150 individuals and 38 entities for “undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”
Among others, the list includes Vladislav Surkov, the aide to the president of the Russian Federation, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Rogozin, and Sergey Aksyonov, who was elected as “Prime Minister of Crimea” in the Crimean Verkhovna Rada on Feb. 27, 2014 in the presence of pro-Russian gunmen.
The economic sanctions include limits on access to EU markets and export bans. They were first applied in March 2015 and have been extended four times since then.
