Sweden urges EU ban on support to Russian oil, gas-shipping fleet

Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, left, and Sweden's new foreign minister Maria Malmer Stenergard, right, attend a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Jessica Gow/TT News Agency via AP)

STOCKHOLM - The European Union should ban companies from providing any support to Moscow’s oil and gas-shipping fleet, introduce sanctions against Russian fertilizers and stop luxury goods exports to Russia, Sweden’s foreign minister said on Monday.

The 27-nation bloc is currently preparing its 20th sanctions package aimed at punishing Russia for its war in Ukraine. Previous sanctions have focused heavily on hobbling its oil and gas sector, the Kremlin’s primary source of revenues.

“The pressure on Russia has to be increased,” Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said at an annual security conference in the town of Salen, in western Sweden.

Stenergard said the EU’s next sanctions package should include a total ban on European companies providing services to Russian ships carrying oil, gas and coal.

“No transport, no reloading of goods between ships, no insurance and no port repairs,” she said.

The EU should also impose sanctions on exports of Russian fertilizer, Russia’s third-biggest export to the EU.

The EU imposed tariffs on fertilizer imports from Russia in July last year. Russia produces more than 20 per cent of the world’s fertilizer and supplies around 25 per cent of the EU’s fertilizer imports.

“And we want to put an end to exports of luxury goods from the EU to Russia,” she said. “It irritates me that rich Russian consumers can wear expensive Italian clothing brands and drink fine French wines.”

The EU has imposed 19 packages of sanctions against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Reporting by Simon Johnson; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Joe Bavier