EU to agree 14th package of anti-Russia sanctions by July

European Union (EU) countries intend to agree the 14th package of sanctions against Russia by July, EUobserver reported citing a draft of the respective document.

The package will neither restrict freedom of movement of Russian diplomats in the bloc nor ban the import of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), nuclear fuel or aluminum, according to the news outlet. The package will target 52 more companies from Russia and other countries suspected of shipping banned goods to Moscow, the publication said. Banned goods particularly include drone components.

Moreover, the new package of sanctions proposes an EU27-wide prohibition on Russian funding for "European political parties and European political foundations", "non-governmental organizations", and "media service providers", EUobserver said. The draft new sanctions also prohibit EU ports from handling Russian liquid gas shipments to non-EU states, ban ships from EU ports that aid Russia sanctions circumvention, as well as tighten existing EU restrictions on Russian aviation and on imports of Russian helium and assorted minerals.

Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice president of the European Commission (EC), the EU's executive arm, said earlier that the European Union was having a hard time negotiating the 14th package of sanctions against Russia, adding that it would most likely not contain new restrictions, but only attempts to counter Russian measures to overcome the sanctions blockade. The EC started developing the 14th package of sanctions against Moscow right after the adoption of the 13th package, which was approved on February 23. The restrictions affected 106 individuals and 88 legal entities from Russia and a number of other countries, including India, Kazakhstan, China, Serbia, Thailand, Turkey, and Sri Lanka.