Czechia urges outreach to third countries before further Russia sanctions

Even if the EU continues economic sanctions on Russia, focus should be put on rallying the rest of the world’s support for Ukraine, Czechia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Marian told EURACTIV in an interview.

EU member states approved in June the latest eleventh Russia sanctions package since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, designed to prevent third countries and companies from circumventing the bloc’s existing measures.

“There is definitely room for another [package] plus looking into loopholes and evasion of sanctions,” Marian said.

With negotiations becoming more and more difficult when it comes to agreeing on economic sanctions, Europeans have been looking at filling in the gaps in the sanctions and promoting their measures to third countries in the hope they will follow them.

“The buzzword now is outreach and (…) talking to third countries, in bordering regions being Central Asia or the Caucasus, talking to the partners in the South, with Africa or South America,” he added.

He stayed firm on continuing sanctions against Moscow, in whatever form they might take.

“As people say, the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement, and I think there are many areas we can still touch upon,” Marian said about implementing EU sanctions without going into specifics.

“Of course, there might be some logical national sensitive issues, some dependencies,” to take into account, he added.

The Czech Republic still benefits from imports of Russian oil, on which it depends for its energy security.

For the same reason, it has been reluctant, alongside other member states – to sanction nuclear energy imports provided by Russia to the bloc, although Baltic countries and Poland, especially, have been calling for the EU to sanction state company Rosatom.

Outreach key

Marian said that EU member states would need to reach out to third countries more to rally them to the Ukraine cause.

Outreach “is something we do both on the EU [and the national level], and we coordinate with other like-minded colleagues”, he added.

While EU sanctions had been planned in coordination with G7 partners and have been followed by other European countries, for instance, in the Western Balkans, the bloc has faced backlash from third countries, which have been hesitant to condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of being responsible for risking food security around the world by imposing sanctions on Russia.

“We talked to the Ukrainians who are more active in Africa now. We help them. And I think this is very important,” Marian said about Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky’s recent diplomatic outreach to African countries.

National initiative

With its national equivalent of the American ‘Magnitsky Act’, a human rights violation sanctions regime, the Czech Republic has been able to sanction individuals the EU member states have not.

Three Russians have been blacklisted by the Czech Republic, including Patriarch Kirill, the listing of whom was refused by Hungary multiple times, who “was joined by another two businessmen from Russia who have properties in Czechia”, Marian said.

“There are more to come,” he said, adding that the national sanctions regime would be “a complementary tool”.

“In case there is not an agreement on the EU level, we can still do something on the national level, Marian said.

[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski/Alice Taylor]