Linde and her EU colleagues gathered on Friday afternoon to nail down the sanctions that the EU countries' heads of state and government basically agreed on Thursday.
And then two leaden names were added to the list: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
-
Putin and Lavrov are sanctioned now, after this decision.
Their assets are frozen, Linde says on the way out of the meeting in Brussels.
She is very pleased with the EU countries' overall sanctions decision, with a comprehensive package of sanctions.
- This is the largest history we have ever taken.
We also agreed that we probably need to take additional packages and that we also need to take packages to Belarus.
There have been attacks from their territory and it is a violation of international law, says the Foreign Minister.
Travel is allowed
The fact that a president and a foreign minister are affected is extremely unusual.
But it is not unique.
For example, Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko has long been on EU sanctions lists.
In the case of Russia, moreover, the circumstances are so special.
That Putin and Lavrov will not be stopped from traveling is due to continued hopes for some form of diplomacy.
- The Ukrainian management sees what is happening.
They still hope that you will put an end to this and then you must allow Lavrov and Putin to travel, says Linde.
Affects the entire economy
The EU has in a short time announced a number of sanctions against Russia, not just those that are now being directed at the top political strata.
Among other things, exports of high-tech goods to Russia are restricted, city-owned companies are shut down from the US market and Russian banks are shut off from other countries' banking systems.
Torbjörn Becker, head of the Institute of Eastern Economics, emphasizes that the sanctions will hit basically the entire Russian economy.
- It is not possible to use cards abroad.
It affects any individual who has a bank card, but then it also affects the Treasury, large companies and banks, he says to SVT.
He believes that the sanctions could have been extended further.
- There are tough sanctions, but there is more to do.
They could impose sanctions that exclude Russia from Swift, and limit their sales of oil and gas to the world market.
Javascript is disabled
Javascript must be turned on to play video
Read more about browser support
The browser is not supported
SVT does not support playback in your browser.
We therefore recommend that you switch to a different browser.
Read more about browser support
- There are tough sanctions, but there is more to do.
It would be possible to impose sanctions that exclude Russia from Swift, and limit their sales of oil and gas to the world market, says Torbjörn Becker.
Photo: Manu Royer