EU deciding on 7th sanctions package against Russia

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According to Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski, the European Union is working on the seventh package of sanctions against Russia.

In answer to a query about whether work on the next round of sanctions has already begun, Jablonski responded with "of course, yes."

The Deputy Foreign Minister expressed "optimism" that the new sanctions will target the Russian gas supply and will entail the disconnection of remaining Russian banks from SWIFT.

Jablonski told the Polish Press Agency, "Sanctions should be even tougher in the context of gas that Russia can still sell, in the context of disconnecting all Russian banks from the SWIFT system. I am talking here primarily about Gazprombank. There is also a need for an embargo on technologies that can still be supplied to Russia and used by Russia in its industry."

In addition to formal penalties, Poland believes it is important to seize, rather than simply freeze, Russian assets in the EU, he added.

Russia's lower house chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said that Russia's economy may benefit from the EU oil embargo, which was recently imposed wholly on Russian oil as part of the 6th European package of sanctions. In return, EU members will be paying $268 billion per year for rising energy prices, throwing the old continent into a crisis. 

The EU approved the sixth package of penalties on Moscow on Friday, which included a gradual phase-out of Russian oil. Only oil sent by sea will be affected by the new package, while oil delivered via the Druzhba pipeline would be unaffected. The group has also voted to de-SWIFT three additional Russian banks: Sberbank, Credit Bank of Moscow, and Russian Agricultural Bank.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in early May that the West precipitated a worldwide economic catastrophe and a wave of catastrophic inflation by imposing the most punitive sanctions on Russia in recent history in response to the Ukraine conflict.

The US and its allies have slapped broad sanctions on Russia, which Putin has referred to as an economic war.

The West's attempt to economically isolate Russia – one of the world's largest suppliers of natural resources – has pushed the global economy into unknown territory, with food and energy prices skyrocketing.

In an interview for Sputnik on Friday, Venezuelan lawmaker Julio Chavez expressed that US and EU sanctions against Russia are only helping to accelerate the transition to a multipolar world where the US and the dollar have no hegemony.

According to Chavez, "Sanctions are far from weakening Russia, China, or the bloc of developing countries. All they [sanctions] have done is strengthen them [countries] and accelerate the transition to a multipolar world without US hegemony and dollar dictatorship."

Chavez also stated that the West's unlawful and illogical sanctions aimed at harming the economy of Russia, China, and a number of other nations only damage the people of Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.