After Russia’s partial mobilization, the EU is discussing further sanctions against Moscow. The Schröder case also comes to the fore. In order to prevent political influence on EU states in the future, Europeans should no longer take on top jobs in Russian state-owned companies.
According to the German government, EU citizens should no longer be allowed to hold top positions in Russian state-owned companies. This emerges from a proposal from Berlin for new sanctions against Russia, which is available to the German Press Agency in Brussels. The background is likely to be the case of ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who was the head of the supervisory board of the Russian oil company Rosneft for many years.
In addition, the German government urges the implementation of the global price cap for oil imports from Russia, for which the G7 states of economically strong democracies are already campaigning, as well as a ban on working with Russian companies in the field of nuclear energy. According to the proposals, it should also be forbidden to sell real estate in the EU to Russians. In addition, other people are to be banned from entering the EU and their assets frozen in the European Union.
After the announced partial mobilization of Russia in the war against Ukraine, the EU states had agreed to impose further sanctions on Moscow. The EU Commission held talks with representatives of the 27 countries over the weekend to explore their priorities. The German ambassador was invited to an interview on Saturday.
The Brussels authorities are now working on a concrete proposal for the sanctions package, which the ambassadors of the EU states could then discuss on Wednesday. Sanctions must be decided unanimously in the EU.
With regard to the posts in the management bodies of Russian state-owned companies, the German paper states that the Russian government has long been trying to gain undue political influence on the EU states through well-paid jobs for EU citizens. This “strategic corruption” should be put to an end. According to the paper, the ban should not apply to European subsidiaries of Russian state-owned companies.
