Brussels. EU-Russia, the iron arm continues. The Foreign Ministers of the Twenty-Seven try to make a square around Ukraine and its territorial dimension, by inflicting sanctions on five members of the Federal Duma, elected in the Crimean constituency. They are Aleksei Yurievich Cherniak, Leonid Ivanovich Babashov, Tatiana Georgievna Lobach, Nina Sergeevna Faustova and Aleksandr Evgenevich Chmyhalov, elected last September. All are accused of undermining the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, and of having “further destabilized it”.
For these deputies, therefore, there is an asset freeze – including the ban on making funds available to them – and a travel ban. The Council of the EU prevents them from entering or transiting the territory of the European Union. Thus the number of individuals subject to European restrictions rises to 193. The blacklist gets longer, and the tension rises even more.
The decision reached at the meeting of the twenty-seven foreign ministers in Brussels serves to reiterate that the EU does not recognize Crimea as part of the Russian federation, and that it actually considers it to be “illegally annexed”. But above all, the targeted sanctions renew the frontal and direct confrontation against the highest Russian authorities. Four of the five names included in the twelve-star blacklist are members of United Russia, the party of President Vladimir Putin and his dolphin Dimitri Medvedev, for years prime minister and currently head of the party.
The European one is only the last piece of a hectic day, which sees the risk of further downsizing of Ukraine. After the Crima, the Kremlin could also conquer the eastern province of Donbass. «Moscow is considering the request for recognition of Ukrainian separatists», Putin’s announcement.