Russians face new sanctions approved by EU

Brussels: Tuesday, the European Union formally adopted sanctions aimed at punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, including a ban on foreign investments and luxury goods exports, as well as imports of steel products.

In addition to freezing the assets of more businesses supporting the Russian state, the sanctions are published in the EU's official journal later on Tuesday. The list includes Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich.

As a result of the sanctions, "new investments across the Russian energy sector" have been prohibited, the European Commission said in a statement.

Sources in the EU told Reuters that despite the measure hitting Rosneft, Transneft, and Gazprom Neft, EU members are still able to buy oil and gas from them.

According to the EU executive, some Russian state-owned enterprises linked with the Kremlin's military-industrial complex will also be banned from conducting business.

After an agreed deadline, no objections were raised to the new sanctions imposed by the bloc.

As a result of the ban, the Commission estimates that 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) worth of goods will be affected.

As well as luxury goods worth more than 300 euros, exports of cars costing more than 50,000 euros will also be forbidden, EU sources said.

According to the Commission, the package also restricts access to European financial markets for Russia and Russian companies by prohibiting EU credit rating agencies from issuing ratings.

Earlier this year, three rounds of sanctions were imposed, including freezing the assets of the Russian central bank and excluding some Russian and Belarussian banks from the SWIFT system.

Russia was also stripped of its "most-favoured-nation" status on Tuesday, paving the way for punitive tariffs or outright import bans on Russian goods.