48
EU Foreign Affairs Council adopted the 14th package of sanctions against Russia. Work on the 15th package to begin immediately.
(www.yahoo.com)
JUST ONE MORE PACKAGE BRO
I SWEAR BRO JUST ONE MORE, I SWEAR
The sanctions targeted the Russian oligarchs quite a bit, by threatening their investments, properties and deposits in EU tax havens, like Cyprus and Greece. They were forced to transfer a bunch of assets back in Russia, which gave Putin the opportunity to crack down on their corruption and demanding that their wealth remains in Russia. Also, most importantly, he basically curbed their political power and political meddling. A big reason the Russian economy is doing so well is this returned wealth. So the first sanction packages basically backfired. The Europeans thought the Russian oligarchs would overthrow Putin if pressured. Turns out, Putin overthrew the Russian oligarchs.
The new sanction packages leave the oligarchs alone and target Russian government assets in Europe. And yes, all packages have targeted the ability of simple civilians to interact economically with anybody in the US or Europe.
That sounds based actually, we should do this to our own oligarchs next
Agreed. Putin had been building up to it for years though. The first sanctions made it possible to hasten this process. And the Russian oligarchs aren't extinct or anything. They are still super-rich compared to the average Russian. They just can't mess with the government right now, and they have to support the renewed semi-planned economy.