Overview
- The European Commission, which published the 20th package Thursday, listed 33 people and 83 entities for asset freezes with travel bans for the named individuals, including defense executives and cultural figures.
- The package targets energy and maritime logistics by listing 36 oil and gas companies and 12 refineries and by banning EU services for Russian LNG tankers and icebreakers.
- EU regulators expanded the ‘shadow fleet’ crackdown with 46 more tankers now barred from EU ports and services, taking the total to 632, and they restricted EU use of Murmansk, Tuapse and Indonesia’s Karimun terminal tied to opaque oil trades.
- New financial steps ban dealings with 20 more Russian banks with narrow humanitarian exceptions, which lifts the tally of excluded lenders in the EU market to 70 and adds pressure on foreign banks that help Russia skirt controls.
- Crypto measures prohibit exchanges with Russian providers and block EU support for the RUBx stablecoin and the digital ruble, while a circumvention tool was activated for Kyrgyzstan with targeted export curbs to stop re-exports into Russia.