EU leaders threatened sanctions if Russia refuses a «full and unconditional ceasefire». However, the mechanisms for new measures are already being developed now, after Vladimir Putin did not attend the talks in Istanbul, which he himself proposed.
On Friday in Tirana, the capital of Albania, talks are taking place with the participation of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Turkish President Recep Erdogan. As reported by four European officials to the publication, the key topic of discussion will be new sanctions against Russia. Punitive tariffs on Russian imports are being discussed as an alternative to a full embargo, which the EU refrained from due to Hungary's position. According to two sources, such tariffs could help bypass Hungary's veto on tougher sanctions against Russia.
On Wednesday, EU ambassadors agreed on the 17th package of sanctions against Russia, which includes measures against almost 200 vessels of the so-called shadow fleet used to circumvent existing sanctions on oil and gas exports.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stated that Europeans and Americans need to «go further» and «strangle» the Russian economy to force Putin to stop the war in Ukraine. «We must prepare to impose devastating sanctions that can strangle the Russian economy once and for all», he said on Wednesday in an interview with the French TV channel BFMTV.
An unnamed European official told Politico that the inspiration for these proposed «punitive tariffs» was a proposal by US Senator Lindsey Graham to impose tariffs on Russian imports at 500%.
Photo: Reuters