BRUSSELS, February 5. /TASS/. The European Union is looking at supplementing the blacklist of Russian and Ukrainian citizens with about 15 more names, a European diplomatic source told TASS late on Wednesday.
The source said it would be mostly leaders of self-defense forces in eastern Ukraine. Apart from that, the European Union might blacklist another four organizations.
The issue, according to the source, has been discussed by the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union since the beginning of the week. A final decision is expected by the weekend. In this case supplements to the blacklist will be published before a meeting of the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council due on February 9.
The diplomat also said that Greece, which opposed new sanctions against Russia, would not block the blacklist extension as move having no economic impacts.
Another European diplomat told TASS that new names to the blacklist would be made public on Saturday at the latest.
Greece will not block tougher sanctions against Russia that are to be agreed by European Union permanent representatives by the end of this week, a European diplomatic source told TASS late on Wednesday.
"Blocking of sanction is out of the question, since they have no economic effects," the source said.
Blacklist
The blacklisted persons are banned the entry to the European Union. Their bank accounts with EU banks are subject to freezing. European businesses are banned to maintain any contacts and provide any financing to blacklisted companies.
The latest update of the European Union’s blacklist for Russia and Ukraine took place on November 29, 2014. As of today, the list has 132 names. In January, the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council passed a decision to prolong it till September 2015.
Along with the blacklist, the European Union on July 31, 2014 imposed sectoral economic sanctions on Russia that were extended on September 12.
Under these sectoral sanctions, five Russian banks, namely Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, Vnesheconombank and Rosselkhozbank, were denied access to European loans. These sanctions however are not applicable to subsidiaries of the five Russian banks registered in the European Union.
The second element of the sectoral sanctions is a ban on supplies of weapons and double use devices, primarily electronic, to Russia.
And yet another element is a ban on sales of new technologies and high technology equipment for Russia’s oil sector, in particular equipment and technologies for shelf drilling and oil production, for production of shale oil and polar drilling. Experts however say in conditions of falling oil process this block of sections is no longer effective.
Along with these sanctions, the European Union has imposed numerous bans on imports of commodity from Crimea and Sevastopol, transport and visa restrictions in respect of Crimean and Sevastopol residents as part of the so-called EU strategy of the non-recognition of Crimea’s joining the Russian Federation.