Banca March | The European Union is keeping up the pressure on Russia. On the one hand, France yesterday announced new sanctions against Russian oil for the invasion of Ukraine, without Washington’s backing and despite the apparently limited effect of similar measures introduced by Western countries. The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, pointed out that Russia earns €100 billion a year from oil sales, while the total cost of the war is estimated at €140 billion, so it is the wish of the French government to “continue to increase the cost of the war for Vladimir Putin”.
In parallel, the European Union keeps Russia on its “blacklist” of tax havens, along with other countries such as Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu, Fiji, Palau and Samoa, among others. This list, created in 2017 and reviewed every six months, aims to identify those that do not comply with European standards in the fight against tax fraud and evasion. On a second tier, referring to those countries that do not fully comply with EU standards, are Turkey, Vietnam, Belize, Brunei and the Seychelles, among others.
