The European Union’s sanctions against representatives of the Russian and Crimean authorities, which favor separation of Crimea from Ukraine, will hardly be applied to the heads of the biggest Russian energy companies Gasprom and Rosneft, Sebastian Kurz, Austrian Foreign Affairs Minister, said in his interview to the Austrian ORF TV channel, reported Reuters.
On March 14, 2014 German Bild newspaper wrote quoting anonymous sources from the diplomatic circles that the European Union’s sanctions could be applied to Gasprom President Aleksei Miller and Rosneft President Igor Sechin. Kurz denied this information. “I think that it would have been wrong to choose two businessmen without any proofs,” he said.
He confirmed that the EU position to the referendum in support for joining Crimea to Russia did not change. EU believes that this is unacceptable and it is going to use visa limitations and freeze assets of Russian politicians and militaries, who stand behind these events.
The list of people, to whom the sanctions will be applied, is still under discussion by the EU Foreign Ministers, Kurz said.
The initial list of 120-130 names will be reduced to “several tens” before the EU Foreign Ministers make a final decision, Reuters reported quoting the diplomats.
According to the latest date, the EU list includes 21 people – 13 Russian citizens and 8 Ukrainian citizens. They are all politicians.
