(International Observation) Six rounds of sanctions finally found a "gap" How far can EU sanctions against Russia go?

　　China News Agency, Brussels, June 2, Question: Six rounds of sanctions finally have a "gap". How far can EU sanctions against Russia go?

　　China News Agency reporter De Yongjian

　　From May 30th to 31st, the EU held a special summit, during which it imposed oil sanctions on Russia and decided to prohibit the import of Russian oil; EU member states.

　　Since Russia launched a special military operation against Ukraine at the end of February this year, this is the sixth round of sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia, and its "lethality" is self-evident.

At present, nearly 30% of the oil in the EU market comes from Russia. According to EU leaders, after the implementation of the sixth round of sanctions, the EU's oil imports from Russia will be reduced by 75% immediately and by nearly 90% by the end of this year.

　　From the fifth round of sanctions to ban the import of Russian coal in early April to the sixth round of sanctions to ban the import of Russian oil, the EU sanctions against Russia have indeed been escalating step by step; It is found that the "step" of EU sanctions against Russia is becoming more and more heavy.

　　In fact, as early as the beginning of May, the European Commission submitted a sanctions plan, suggesting that EU member states ban the import of Russian oil, but Hungary, which is highly dependent on Russian oil, clearly opposed it, emphasizing that Hungary has no sea outlet. If the Russian oil pipeline is cut off, the Hungarian economy will suffer. will be severely damaged.

　　Under the boycott of Hungary, the EU has been unable to reach a consensus on sanctions against Russian oil, so that the "speed" of EU sanctions against Russia has changed from "days" to "weeks"; the eve of the EU special summit on May 30 , German Deputy Chancellor and Minister of Economy and Climate Protection Habeck even publicly stated that "the unity of the European Union is beginning to break down again".

　　Since Hungary will not back down, the EU Extraordinary Summit can only adopt a compromise solution, which not only imposes a "one-paper ban" on the import of Russian oil, but also has to leave a "gap", excluding the Russian oil that is transported to Europe by pipeline, allowing Hungary and other Eastern European countries continue to import Russian oil through oil pipelines to maintain normal economic operations.

　　Even if the sanctions plan was officially announced at the EU Extraordinary Summit on May 31, this "gap" was extremely conspicuous.

European Council President Michel said at a press conference that the outside world has recently questioned the unity of the EU. At this time, the consensus reached at the summit "sends a strong signal", while Hungarian Prime Minister Orban wrote on his social media account, "Agreed. Unanimous. Hungarian Exemption from Oil Embargo”.

　　It took nearly a month to break the deadlock, and it could only end in a compromise. The reality of EU sanctions on Rosneft seems to have made Brussels a lot of people sober - after all, from Russian coal to Rosneft, and finally to Russian gas, many people are Take for granted the "roadmap" of EU sanctions against Russia.

　　After the conclusion of the EU Extraordinary Summit on May 31, Belgian Prime Minister De Croix made it clear to the media that the EU's energy sanctions against Russia "have come to an end"; Austrian Prime Minister Nehamer said that the EU will not discuss sanctions against Russian natural gas next; EU The headline of a report in the media "politico" was more blunt: "Don't expect the EU to block Russian gas anytime soon."

　　This confirms that in the communiqué of the EU special summit, there was no mention of the EU's next plan to sanction Russia; some media quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that in order to implement the oil sanctions against Russia, EU leaders did not discuss this issue during the summit. Have an in-depth discussion.

　　If so, how far can EU sanctions against Russia go?

Over time, this question mark will get bigger and bigger.

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