EU prepares additional sanctions against Russia

A legislative proposal of the EU Council is needed to impose new restrictive measures on Russia.

It was said by Maja Kocijancic, a spokesperson for the EU foreign policy chief, RIA Novosti reports.

“There has been extensive preparatory work done in the past months in this respect. Some of these options have been already taken forward and have been transformed into restrictive measures adopted by the Council. […] But for any addition to the existing documents and to the existing legislation we need a new legislative proposal [by the Council],” she said answering a question whether possible restrictive measures against Russia were prepared.

The US and the EU do not recognise Russia's occupation of Crimea and accuse Moscow of interfering with Ukraine's affairs. Western countries have imposed a number of sanctions against Russian politicians, businessmen and companies since March and threatened to expand the restrictive measures. New sanctions were imposed in September.