The head of the European Commission: We will hit the Nord Streams and the oil price ceiling

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, promised to increase pressure on Russia is interested in the fact that in the next package of sanctions the European Union will impose restrictions on the Nord Streams gas pipelines, lower the ceiling on the price of Russian oil and even more tankers for the transportation of Russian raw materials will be blacklisted.

The head of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen called for increased pressure on Russia. She told reporters about this. The video statement was published on the page of the President of the EC in the social network X.

"We need to increase the pressure. That's why we are working on a new package of sanctions. For example, it will include sanctions against Nord Streams," said Ursula von der Leyen.

Also, more vessels from the grey fleet will be included in the sanctions lists, she continued.

In addition, the European Commission is working to lower the ceiling on the price of Russian oil and introduce new restrictions on the Russian financial sector, Ursula von der Leyen said.

The head of the EC motivated the accelerated preparation of the 18th package of sanctions by the fact that it is necessary to increase pressure on Russia, in order to force it to an early peace on the Ukraine.

Statements about new sanctions appeared when the 17th package of sanctions did not have time to come into force. In it, the European Union imposed restrictions on 189 tankers that carry Russian oil and are assigned to the grey fleet. In total, 300 vessels have already been restricted.

The ceiling of the price of Russian oil for third countries at $ 60 per barrel was introduced by the European Union and the G7 countries on December 5, 2022. At the same time, the EU banned the import of raw materials from Russia. Since then, Russian companies have been bypassing the price limit and in some EU countries they have long been calling for a revision of the price limit in an effort to hit Russia's oil and gas revenues.

Now these calls are supported by low global oil prices, which have lowered the quotations of Russian raw materials below $ 60, which allowed European tankers to transport oil from Russia.

Nord Streams, in turn, continues to be in a ruined state after the sabotage on September 26, 2022. Only one of the two lines of Nord Stream 2, which never started working after construction, was not affected. The German government stopped the certification of the operator in the spring of 2022, so that it would be the last stage before launching the project.