The European Union agreed to expand sanctions against Russia and Belarus for what it deemed as “unjustified and unprovoked Russian military aggression against Ukraine.”

The EU agreed to restrict the provision of specialized financial messaging services (SWIFT) to Belagroprombank, Bank Dabrabyt, and the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus, as well as their Belarusian subsidiaries;

EU will prohibit transactions with the Central Bank of Belarus related to the management of reserves or assets, and the provision of public financing for trade with and investment in Belarus;

It will also ban the listing and provision of services in relation to shares of Belarus state-owned entities on EU trading venues as of 12 April 2022.

The bloc agreed to significantly limit the financial inflows from Belarus to the EU, by prohibiting the acceptance of deposits exceeding €100.000 from Belarusian nationals or residents, the holding of accounts of Belarusian clients by the EU central securities depositories, as well as the selling of euro-denominated securities to Belarusian clients; to prohibit the provision of euro denominated banknotes to Belarus.

Furthermore, the Council introduced further restrictive measures with regard to the export of maritime navigation goods and radio communication technology to Russia. By virtue of this decision, it will be prohibited to sell, supply, transfer or export, directly or indirectly, maritime navigation goods and technology to any natural or legal person, entity or body in Russia, for use in Russia, or for the placing on board of a Russian-flagged vessel.

The Council also expanded the list of legal persons, entities and bodies subject to the prohibitions related to investment services, transferable securities, money market instruments, and loans.

The Council clarified the notion of “transferable securities” so as to clearly include crypto-assets, and thus ensure the proper implementation of the sectoral restrictions in place.

The European Union condemned the Russian Federation’s unprovoked and unjustified military hostilities against Ukraine, as well as Belarus’ involvement in this aggression.