Contents tagged with EU

  • European Parliaments calls for disconnecting Belarus from SWIFT

    The European Parliament calls for Belarus to be disconnected from the SWIFT payment system, as well as to ban the country's national team from participating in the Tokyo Olympic, reported the Belarusian news outlet Nasha Niva.

    The European Parliament calls on the Council of the European Union to expand sanctions against Belarus as soon as possible. The sanctions list should include all those responsible for the forced landing of the Ryanair passenger plane and the arrest of opposition …

  • EU extends sanctions against Crimea

    The EU Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER) extended for a year without any discussions restrictive measures against Crimea as part of the EU's strategy to reject Crimea's annexation by Russia, adopted in 2014, TASS reports, citing a diplomatic source in Brussels.

    "COREPER has decided to extend for 12 months restrictive measures against Crimea and Sevastopol," TASS’ source said. The decision will be formally approved by the EU Council next week and will then come into force. …

  • Moscow to open Russia's airspace for flights bypassing Belarus

    Russian authorities decided not to continue the air war with the EU after European airlines began to fly around Belarus in response to the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk.

    On Thursday evening, Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviation, convened for an emergency meeting to discuss how to deal with European flights requesting permission to enter the Russian airspace.

    A Vienna-Moscow Austrian Airlines flight and a Paris-Moscow Air France flight were denied entry into the …

  • EU prepares to block import of Russian gas through Belarus

    The European Union is preparing to tighten the currency stranglehold around Alexander Lukashenko’s neck, whose regime is already losing a key source of export earnings after NAFTAN refinery was put on the U.S. "blacklist".

    The European sanctions against Belarus in response to the forced landing of the Ryanair flight in Minsk may include measures against the transit of Russian gas through Belarus, said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell.

    The sanctions may be imposed on …

  • Moscow refuses to allow European flights bypassing Belarus to enter Russia’s airspace

    The Russian authorities seem to have come up with a response to air blockade of Belarus, which was introduced by the European Union after Lukashenko’s special operation to force the landing of the Ryanair flight in Minsk.

    On Wednesday, Air France, Europe's third-largest airline by passenger traffic, was forced to reschedule an evening Paris-Moscow flight because it did not get a permission to enter Russian airspace.

    The airline planned to fly around Belarus and requested permission to enter …

  • EU expands sanctions against Belarus

    EU countries have decided to expand economic sanctions against Belarus, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a two-day summit in Brussels.

    The forced landing of a Ryanair flight to detain the founder and former chief executive of the opposition Telegram channel Nexta, Roman Protasevich, which the official Minsk initially attributed to Alexander Lukashenko's personal order and then tried to blame the alleged bomb threat from the Palestinian Hamas movement, is an "unacceptable violation of …

  • U.S. and EU demand suspending all air traffic over Belarus

    Lukashenko’s special operation to force the landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk using combat aviation risks turning into a tightening of Western sanctions against Belarus, including expulsion from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and ban on civil flights over its territory.

    The operation, which resulted in the detention of Roman Protasevich, founder and former editor-in-chief of the Telegram channel NEXTA, is an act of "state terrorism," Manfred Weber, head of the European …

  • Russia bans entry to 8 EU politicians

    Russia has banned entry to eight citizens of the European Union in response to the restrictive measures imposed by the EU Council on March 2 and 22 this year against six Russian citizens, said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement.

    The list includes:

    -Ivars Abolins, Chairman of The National Electronic Mass Media Council ofthe Republic of Latvia on ;

    -Maris Baltins, Director of the State Language Centre of the Republic of Latvia;

    -Jacques Maie, member of the French delegation at the …

  • European Parliament calls for oil and gas embargo on Russia in the event of invasion of Ukraine

    The European Parliament has adopted a tough anti-Russian resolution, which provides for a halt in imports of Russian oil and gas to the EU, and the disconnection of Russia from SWIFT payment system in the event of a direct Russian invasion of Ukraine, reported Deutsche Welle.

    The document was supported by 569 MEPs, 67 opposed, 46 abstained.

    The European Parliament regards as "threatening and destabilizing" Russia's build-up of troops near the border of Ukraine and in the annexed Crimea. …

  • European MPs call for disconnecting Russia from SWIFT

    The head of the leading European Parliament’s faction, the European People's Party, Manfred Weber called for tougher sanctions against Russia in case of escalation in eastern Ukraine or deterioration of the health of Alexei Navalny, who is on a hunger strike in the penal colony.

    Russia is "continuing the course of dangerous provocations" and "strengthening the military presence around eastern Ukraine is a test for the West," Weber said in an interview with the Funke media group.

    The answer, …