EU to freeze Putin and Lavrov’s assets

Politico ^ | February 25, 2022 | Jacopo Barigazzi

[Loyalist]

The EU will freeze the assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, as part of a sanctions package set for approval Friday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell confirmed on Friday.

They will not, however, be banned from traveling to the EU, according to four diplomats.

"This is an important step," Borrell said in brief remarks, noting that the only other world leaders under EU sanctions are Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus.

The move comes as the EU faces pressure from Ukraine to ratchet up its penalties on Moscow, with Russian troops closing in on Kyiv and threatening to topple the government. The Financial Times first reported the decision.

It also comes shortly after EU leaders approved what they called a "massive and painful" package of economic penalties in response to Moscow's shocking military assault on its neighbor.

The punishments cut off large portions of the Russian economy from EU markets. But the package did not bar Russia from the SWIFT international payments system, used for global business transactions, nor did it target Putin and some of his closest advisers, like Lavrov.

As of Friday afternoon, that had changed.

The possibility of sanctioning Putin and Lavrov was discussed during the EU leaders’ emergency summit meeting held overnight Thursday into Friday.

While several leaders pushed for the penalties, others had doubts. A compromise was floated that involved freezing their assets but holding off on a travel ban. That arrangement got the final green light Friday morning.

[BeauBo]

Is Putin’s Daughter still in the USA?

Have they assigned prosecutors in the Hague to start investigating a criminal case against Putin, like Milosevic?

[FlyingEagle]

Too kind, you are

[offduty]

In the best tradition of FR, I commented before I read the article saying the yacht had sailed with the destination being Kaliningrad.