BRUSSELS, April 09. /ITAR-TASS/. The EU will discuss the situation in eastern Ukraine and consider possible expansion of sanctions against Russia at a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on April 14, a source in the European Council told ITAR-TASS.

“The ministers will discuss the situation in Ukraine,” the source said.

The source also did not rule out that the issue of possible expansion of sanctions against Russian individuals will be considered. He noted that only visa restrictions and bank asset freezing (in the European banks) is discussed at that point.

 

Who is in the EU black list

March 21, the EU has blacklisted another twelve Russian officials banning them from entering the EU territory. The EU also pledged to freeze their bank accounts if they have them in European banks.

the EU sanctions list included Russian Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin; presidential adviser Sergei Glazyev, presidential aide Vladislav Surkov; Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko; State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin; Dmitry Kiselev, the director of the “International News Agency “Russia Today”; two deputy commanders of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Alexander Nosatov and Valery Kulikov; Mikhail Malyshev, chairman of the Crimean Central Electoral Commission; Valery Medvedev, chairman of Sevastopol’s election committee; Colonel General Igor Turchenok; State Duma Deputy Yelena Mizulina.

March 17, the EU published the initial sanctions list with 21 Russian and Crimean officials. Then, 8 representatives of Crimean leadership were included in the list: Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov, parliamentary Speaker Vladimir Konstantinov, First Vice-Premier Rustam Temirgaliyev; Crimean Navy Commander Denis Berezovsky; Mayor of Sevastopol Alexei Chalyi; Security Service Chief Pyotr Zima; Yuri Zherebtsov, adviser to the speaker of the Crimean State Council (parliament); and Sergei Tsekov, the head of the Russian Community of Crimea.

The list also featured 10 Russian lawmakers and 3 high-ranking military officials: Viktor Ozerov, the head of the Russian Federation Council Defense Committee; Vladimir Dzhabarov, the first deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee for International Affairs; Andrei Klishas, the head of the Federation Council Committee for Constitutional Legislation; Nikolai Ryzhkov, a representative of Russia’s Belgorod region at the Federation Council; Evgeny Bushmin, the vice-speaker of the Russian Federation Council; Alexander Totoonov, a member of the Federation Council Committee for Science, Education, Culture and Information Policy; Oleg Panteleyev, the first deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee for Regulation and Organisation of Parliamentary Activity; Sergei Mironov, the leader of A Just Russia party faction at the Russian State Duma of the Russian Federal Assembly; State Duma Vice-Speaker Sergei Zheleznyak; Leonid Slutsky, the head of the State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs.

Vice-Admiral Alexander Vitko, the Russian Black Sea Fleet commander; Commander of the Western Military District Anatoly Sidorov and Commander of the Southern Military District Alexander Galkin have also been blacklisted.

Thus, the total number of Russian officials blacklisted by the EU reached 33 people. The EU believes that these officials “bear personal responsibility for Russia’s actions towards Ukraine”.

 

Other sanctions imposed by the EU against Russia

Aside from creating a black list for Russia, the EU decided to suspend talks on easing of visa formalities and preparations for introducing visa-free regime with Russia, as well as the Russia-EU partnership agreement. In addition, Brussels made a decision to postpone the next Russia-EU summit scheduled for June 3. The EU has not taken any measures of trade or economic nature against Russia. However, the EU summit instructed the European Commission to draft possible measures that would inflict minimal losses to the economy of EU members. These measures may be imposed in case of “further escalation of the Ukrainian crisis”, EU President Herman Van Rompuy stated after the summit. He refused to comment for the media on what specific actions could force the EU to introduce economic sanctions.