The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the ban on Russian gold was the most important measure of the latest plan, which is largely focused on “improving the implementation of already existing sanctions.” The EU has gone through six rounds of sanctions against Russia, but agreeing on the latest package – a partial oil ban agreed in May – has been a harrowing experience that has revealed stark differences over how far the bloc should go. The latest measures have been nicknamed the “six and a half package”, a sign of the limited appetite for further sanctions against Russia. Borrell revealed the disagreements, telling reporters on arrival at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday: “There is a big debate about whether sanctions are effective, sanctions affect us more than Russia. Some European leaders said the sanctions were wrong, they were wrong. Well, I don’t think it was a mistake.” According to the draft regulation seen by the Guardian, the EU will ban “the direct or indirect import, purchase or transfer of gold, which is Russia’s most important export after energy”. The plan is expected to be formally approved within the week. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST The gold ban follows a similar move by the G7, which includes the EU’s three biggest economies. The value of gold exports to the Russian elite has risen as a way to avoid Western sanctions. Ukraine’s special envoy for sanctions, Oleksiy Makeyev, said he would “not underestimate the meaning” of the latest EU sanctions. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said sanctions pressure on Moscow was mounting and predicted that Russia’s economy will shrink by at least 10% by the end of the year. However, he hinted that the EU is lagging behind Western countries when it comes to sanctions. He said: “Of course we expect the European Union to take the lead in imposing sanctions. Right now, it’s been the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada that have the lead in this sanctions coalition, but it’s important to move forward as a whole.” Before the invasion of Ukraine, the EU did far more trade with Russia than any of these countries and was heavily dependent on Russian gas. The bloc has effectively ruled out an imminent gas ban, but diplomats say the Kremlin’s decision to cut supplies has the same effect. “Putin’s decisions make it go faster than if we had a gas package,” said a senior EU diplomat. The latest proposal also offers some response to criticism that African countries are being hurt by EU sanctions. In May, African Union president Macky Sall told EU leaders that their sanctions on Russian banks make it difficult, or even impossible for African countries to buy fertilizers from Russia. The latest EU sanctions regulation broadens the exemption for agricultural products, stating that none of the bloc’s sanctions “target in any way agricultural and food trade, including wheat and fertilizers, between third countries and Russia.” EU foreign ministers to discuss further military support to Ukraine. Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, urged major industrialized countries to do more. He said: “If anything has to go on, it’s arms deliveries. And whoever can do that – obviously these are the major industrialized countries of the Western world – must speed up their deliveries.”
