13th package of sanctions: EU prepares embargo on Russian aluminium

The European Union is going to impose an embargo on Russian aluminium as part of the 13th sanctions package.

Source: Politico

Details: The greatest obstacle is the increasing difficulty for the EU to find substantial targets for sanctions, the newspaper noted.

Nuclear power or liquefied natural gas (LNG) remain outside the restrictions due to the stance of various EU countries. Rosatom, a Russian state nuclear corporation, is building two new reactors for Hungary, so it won't let sanctions be imposed on the Russian nuclear sector, whereas Russian LNG is imported by many countries, especially Spain.

Therefore, as part of the 13th package of sanctions, the EU plans to target Russian imports rather than its exports.

One EU diplomat said the EU plans to consider an embargo on a range of other goods, but negotiations on this issue are at an early stage.

Therefore, since the aluminium smelting process requires a vast amount of electricity, sanctions against aluminium will simultaneously become sanctions against the energy sector.

The EU nations seek to create additional obstacles to Russia's acquisition of components that it cannot produce itself and that it needs for high-tech weapons such as guided missiles.

However, the outcome is ambiguous. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis believes combating sanctions circumvention remains a major headache for the EU.

"We have to really look into this sort of circumvention. The difficult part of this is that some of these components are not sanctioned, because they might be in something that, from the first glance, appears quite innocent, we call it the ‘refrigerator components’, and Russians disassemble it and then use it," the minister explained.

The 13th package of sanctions is planned to be agreed on by 24 February, the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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