E.U. Approves Sweeping Sanctions Targeting Russian Gas and Crypto

Europe|E.U. Approves Sweeping Sanctions Targeting Russian Gas and Crypto

European Union officials on Thursday approved a fresh, far-reaching package of sanctions against Russia, banning Russian liquefied natural gas imports while also targeting the country’s banks and cryptocurrency exchanges and placing travel limits on its diplomats.

The new package was proposed in September, and the official sign-off comes at a moment when the United States is also getting tougher on Russia.

President Trump announced just hours earlier that he was imposing significant new sanctions on Russia for the first time in his second term, taking aim at its two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.

“This is a clear signal from both sides of the Atlantic that we will keep up collective pressure on the aggressor,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, wrote on social media.

The new sanctions package had been held up by Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, over concerns about unrelated car regulations and energy costs. But it became clear on Wednesday that Mr. Fico had been appeased.

“It is extremely positive that we have reached an agreement,” Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the foreign minister of Denmark, said in a statement on Thursday. “The sanctions have real impact and are hurting the Russian economy.”

The move to phase out Russia’s liquefied natural gas is a particularly notable step, because it is meant to pave the way toward fully preventing Russian fuel from coming into the 27-nation bloc. The ban will be staged: Short-term contracts will end after six months, and long-term contracts will sunset from the start of 2027.

That full ban in 2027 will come a year earlier than the European Union had proposed elsewhere.

The sanctions package also takes aim at Russia’s efforts to circumvent previously established E.U. restrictions. For instance, they apply to transactions in cryptocurrencies, which can be harder to trace than traditional financial transactions and are often used as a workaround.

The European Union is also continuing to take on the so-called “shadow fleet” of ships that Russia uses to ferry its oil around the world in defiance of price caps. That fleet is made up of often dilapidated boats that use evasive tactics, have shady registrations and often lack insurance.

The bloc will add more than 100 vessels to its list of sanctioned ships, bringing the total to 558, according to the Danish presidency.

The goal of Europe’s many sanctions packages has been to harm the Russian economy, making it harder for the Kremlin to keep waging its war in Ukraine. While Russia has managed to work around many of the limitations — for instance, by selling oil and gas to China — developing those workarounds has cost Moscow time and money.