Moscow’s potential to blackmail the Union is rapidly disappearing. The eighth package of EU sanctions will reinforce this effect.
An embargo on Russian diamonds, or not this time? Questions like these are delaying the EU ambassadors’ negotiations on the eighth package of economic and personnel sanctions since Russia’s February 24 attack on Ukraine far more than might have been expected. A basic agreement was reached during the night on Wednesday. It will be formally decided on Wednesday so that these measures can come into force before the start of the founding meeting of the European Political Community and the informal European Council on Thursday and Friday.
But regardless of whether Russian diamond exports are still permitted or not, one thing can be said for sure: the Union’s detachment from Russia has accelerated rapidly over this period of time. In an attempt to blackmail and weaken Europeans through their dependence on gas and oil, Russian President Vladimir Putin may have irreversibly damaged Russia’s economic ties to the West.