Politico: Russian jewelry exempt from gold ban in EU sanctions plans

The European Commission set out plans to ban imports of Russian gold on July 15 — but for now, it's leaving jewellery out of the list of sanctioned goods, according to a draft seen by POLITICO.

The EU executive began drafting plans to ban gold from Russia after the G7 economic powers announced last month they would do so in an attempt to stifle income for the Kremlin's war machine.

“Russia's brutal war against Ukraine continues unabated," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a press release. "Moscow must continue to pay a high price for its aggression.”

The draft of the sanctions package, which still has to be approved by EU countries, says "it shall be prohibited to purchase, import, or transfer, directly or indirectly, gold, as listed in Annex XXVI if it originates in Russia and it has been exported from Russia into the Union or to any third country."

But the draft annex to the document, obtained by POLITICO, shows that the bloc would only ban gold in powder, unwrought or semi-manufactured forms, as well as gold coins and waste or scrap gold. The draft does not list gold in the form of jewellery like gold chains or gold rings. That could leave loopholes that keep money flowing into Kremlin coffers.

Russia exports gold worth billions of euros each year. In 2019 some 90 per cent of Russian gold exports went to the U.K. — which has now left the EU.