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The EU has excluded the supply of Russian fertilisers from the new sanctions package. As the WSJ writes, the agreement on the ninth package of sanctions was adopted following active lobbying on the issue of alleviating food security problems for the poorest countries by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Recently, Guterres contacted many EU leaders to convince them of the need to facilitate the transit of Russian fertilisers through EU ports. Therefore, after much discussion, EU leaders have agreed that national governments can allow the Russian Federation to supply the necessary fertilisers. However, the exemptions will only apply to individuals or legal entities associated with large Russian agri-food businesses. In addition, the shipment must be part of a UN program or destined for a developing country that is subject to UN food security priorities.
The ninth package of the European Union’s anti-Russian sanctions will not cover Russia’s energy sector and nuclear power, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters on December 12. “In accordance with the current circumstances, any sanctions affecting Russia’s energy sector have not been included into the ninth package of sanctions. And we have also managed not to include nuclear power to the sanctions package,” he said.
EU energy ministers have failed to agree on a gas price limit at a meeting in Brussels, Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto said on December 13. “There was a big discussion at the energy council, no agreement could be reached at the plenary session, so the continuation takes place bilaterally. Czech Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Sikela is chairing, I can only say to him too that the gas price limit is a bad idea,” he said. Sikela said earlier in the day that the EU may postpone a decision on a gas price limit to December 19, if no agreement is struck at a meeting of the energy ministers. European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson said that the opinions and reservations among the EU states differed vastly on the issue, and the discussion would not be easy. On November 22, the European Commission suggested setting the upper limit of the price of monthly gas futures under the TTF index at €275 per MWh. The Financial Times reported that after postponing the decision, the EU states were considering reducing the limit to €220 per MWh.
The Western countries do not love and are not particularly going to love Russia, though Russia does not need it, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Pavel Zarubin’s Moscow on December 11. Kremlin. Putin program on Rossiya-1 TV channel. "No one loves us and no one is particularly going to. And we do not need it," he said when speaking about the collective West.
EU to target Russia’s drone sector in 9th sanctions package. The European Union plans to impose restrictions on Russia’s drone industry under
31 RUSSIA Country Report January 2023 www.intellinews.com