Bloomberg: EU is preparing sanctions against 1,600 Russia-linked companies

EU member states are working on what Bloomberg says could be the bloc’s largest company-by-count sanctions package against Russia. The plan would target roughly 1,600 legal entities that Brussels believes are acting in Russia’s interests in the Ukraine war, and that matters for high-risk PSPs because the last package already reached oil, LNG, banks, payment systems, and crypto infrastructure.

1. The proposed sanctions list could include about 1,600 companies, according to Bloomberg sources. The firms’ combined annual turnover exceeds $20 billion, and they employ more than 265,000 people. The source material does not say which sectors these companies operate in.
2. Bloomberg says the EU does not expect this package to have the same economic impact as restrictions on oil and banking. In other words, the headline number is large, but the financial damage is expected to be less concentrated than with sector-wide measures.
3. The new restrictions are meant to push Russia back into active переговоры on Ukraine, Bloomberg reports. That is the political objective Brussels is working from; the article does not say which specific payment, banking, or crypto names could be hit next.
4. The 21st sanctions package, adopted last week, already targeted the oil industry, the LNG market, banks, payment systems, and crypto infrastructure. For PSPs serving cross-border or high-risk flows, that is the part to watch: when Brussels starts listing “financial infrastructure,” the compliance radius tends to widen fast.
5. Some language on banning the resale of Russian LNG was softened after Greece objected. Athens said those restrictions would effectively break Dynagas, a shipping company that specializes in transporting cargo from the Arctic Yamal LNG plant. Brussels then started discussing an accelerated track for “targeted financial restrictions” to avoid similar carve-outs.