Page 46 - RusRPTJul24

developing and growing (2.2% last year), and the country continues earning billions in the European market. Therefore, said Aaron Pluto, a strategic consultant to high-ranking military officials and diplomats, Europe should finally ban all metal products from Russia. After all, the absence of such sanctions continues to allow the aggressor state to reap billions in profits. These funds contribute to the acquisition of drones, missiles, and other weapons aimed at the Ukrainian civilian population. In particular, Russian steel slabs and pig iron continue to arrive in Europe. And the 12th package of sanctions, which prohibits these imports, provides for a grace period. "This permission to import Russian slab over the next four years will allow Russian metallurgists to earn more than €6B. Therefore, Moscow will receive €1.5B in profit from those sales directly "in Putin's wallet," allowing months to finance the purchase of weapons because the EU’s 12-sanction package extended the quotas for Russian slab for another four years.
IMF: The EU will completely abandon Russian energy sources by 2030.
Accordingto the IMF, the EU has stopped importing coal and most oil from Russia. Imports of Russian gas to the EU have also been decreasing since 2021, and after the beginning of the full-scale war, the volume of supply has decreased significantly. This led to Europe's worst energy crisis since the 1970s, as Europe's energy security worsened as a result of its increased dependence on imports and a limited number of suppliers. After 2022, EU countries began to reorient their import flows quickly. For example, Germany, the largest importer of Russian gas, has increased its share of imported gas from Norway from 19% to 60% since 2021. The IMF also predicts Europe will increase its energy imports from the US and other countries. "According to the post-war baseline scenario, Europe will gradually phase out the remaining Russian fossil fuels by 2030," the IMF report says. France and Italy will increase imports from Africa; Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland - from Norway; Bulgaria, Croatia, and Romania - from the US.
EU member states on May 30 agreed to impose "prohibitive" duties on grain imports from Russia in a bid to limit revenues to Moscow as it continues to wage war on neighboring Ukraine. The latest measure will "tackle illegal Russian exports of stolen Ukraine grain into EU markets," the EU's trade commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, said on social media. Likewise, the tariffs will be applied to supplies from Belarus, which served as a staging ground for the Kremlin's full-scale invasion in February 2022. But the tariffs will not apply to Russian grain transiting through the EU to countries outside the bloc, to ensure that food supplies elsewhere are not impacted. Under World Trade Organization rules, virtually all Russian grain has until now been exempt from EU import duties.
Germany and the Czech Republic have led the energy revolution in the EU and want to eliminate the remaining 20% of imports from Russia. Germany and the Czech Republic are calling on the EU to do more to cut the last 20% of Russian energy imports. The countries are asking for the creation of a working group to determine ways to gradually stop supplies of Russian gas (including LNG), oil, and nuclear materials that are still flowing to Europe. Brussels has set a goal of ending the EU's dependence on Russian energy sources by 2027. Gas exports from the Russian Federation were reduced after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The EU quickly replaced Russian fuel with
46 RUSSIA Country Report July 2024 www.intellinews.com