The EU believes that banning gold imports will impoverish Russia’s war coffers. Russia has threatened to look for new sales markets elsewhere.
The EU plans to ban the import of Russian gold.
Vice President of the Commission Maroš Šefčovič confirmed the matter on Friday at an informal meeting of European ministers in Prague.
According to Reuters sources, the new sanctions would be announced as early as Friday. According to Šefčovič, the package will be published as soon as all member states are in agreement.
The EU is following the decision of the most industrialized G7 countries. At the end of June, they decided on a corresponding ban on the import of Russian gold.
Among other things, the President of the United States Joe Biden comments that gold is significantly fattening Russia’s war chest.
A valuable export product for Russia
The value of Russian gold exports last year was almost 15 billion euros. The country produces the second most gold in the world, right after China.
Gold has also been a way for the Russian oligarchs to circumvent the financial sanctions imposed by the EU. They are reported to have exchanged their funds for gold, a kind of safe haven for wealth.
According to analysts, however, the import ban may remain partially symbolic (you switch to another service), because the access of Russian gold to the market is already limited. Already at the beginning of March, the world’s most important place for selling gold, i.e. London’s LBMA, denied sales permits to six Russian gold traders.
Russia has commented that it is seeking markets for its gold products from other parts of the world.
Will the sanctions really hit or not?
The EU has previously announced six sanctions packages.
The most recent of them includes a ban on most of Russia’s imported oil and will enter into force by the end of the year. The package came about only after Hungary’s long opposition.
The EU has not reached an agreement on the Russian natural gas import ban. Imported Russian gas is too important an energy source for many EU countries to be willing to give it up.
The EU has been criticized for not being ready to take sufficiently heavy measures towards Russia, because it fears the effects on its own economy. Commissioner Šefčovič denies that there is tournament fatigue in the air in sanctions against Russia and supporting Ukraine.
– I have never seen such a strong consensus from the member states, whether we are talking about financial support or military aid to Ukraine, he said on Friday.
The EU has particularly limited the export of high technology to Russia. It has placed hundreds of Russian citizens on the sanctions list and frozen Russian funds in EU banks worth billions.