While the United States is actively working to end the war in Ukraine, European allies can also show that they are serious. And to strengthen economic sanctions against Russia, which still continues to fill its budget by buying fuel and metals.
This is stated in an article by Matthew Boyce and James K. Glassman for Fortune magazine.
"The Energy Research Center (CREA) reported that the import of fossil fuels to the EU from Russia in 2024 amounted to 24 billion dollars, which is more than the financial assistance to Ukraine. This addiction must stop. European countries "use every opportunity to trade with Russia, even when this trade weakened European security and strengthened Moscow," the authors point out.
However, energy is not the only gap in sanctions that Europe needs to address. Last year's American Enterprise Institute report by Chris Miller and Caroline Novak concluded that "Russian exports of minerals and metals remain largely unchanged."
"The EU has introduced exceptions for Russian steel resources such as pig iron and iron ore, and high quotas have not harmed Russian exporters of products such as slabs. European countries purchase about $4 billion worth of Russian steel products per year", - the newspaper emphasizes.
Tougher sanctions require the consensus of the 27 EU countries, and member states such as Italy, Belgium, Denmark and the Czech Republic have Russian steel mills that use Russian metals.
"The Europeans can force the sale of these Russian plants. Or get metals from other countries, including Ukraine, which suffers doubly. First, the Russians destroyed many metallurgical plants, including the 95-year-old Azovstal metallurgical Plant in Mariupol, one of the largest in Europe. And secondly, Russians are still selling cheaper metal to European markets, displacing competitors", - the authors noted.
As you know, the UP publication conducted an investigation earlier and found out that Vladimir Lisin, the second richest man in the Russian Federation, the owner of the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine (NLMK), is actively cooperating with Russian enterprises that produce missiles, drones and nuclear weapons. At the same time, two Lisin plants continue to operate quietly in the suburbs of Brussels. And Lisin himself, despite his close friendship with Putin, is not under EU sanctions.
Earlier, Vladislav Vlasyuk, the presidential commissioner for sanctions policy, said that in 2023 Russia exported €3 billion worth of mining and metallurgical complex (MMC) products to the EU, and another €2.1 billion in 9 months of 2024. Therefore, the sanctions are based on
