Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said, on the sidelines of a council meeting in Brussels on Monday, that the foreign affairs council of the European Union has agreed on a new package of sanctions against Russia.
Minister Szijjártó said the new sanctions were “basically an update to earlier rules” and did not contain any restrictions concerning energy imports. The Hungarian government “did not break the unity and did not boycott the agreement though it thinks that the community should strive for peace”, he said. The package does not include sanctions concerning Russia’s Gazprombank, Minister Szijjártó said, adding that the Hungarian government had “very firmly” indicated earlier that it would not support such measures. Concerning details of the European sanctions, Minister Szijjártó said the community would introduce an embargo on gold, restrict the trade of dual-use products used in both civilian and defence industries, and impose further restrictions on public purchases as well as restrictions concerning accounting and consulting services. A further 48 private individuals and 9 organisations have been added to the earlier sanctions list, including a Russian deputy prime minister, several political leaders of members of the Russian Federation, as well as Sberbank.
Photo credit: Facebook/Szijjártó Péter