Tough times call for drastic measures. The adage seemed to be the European Union's new motto in response to the recent Malaysian Airlines incident in Ukraine that claimed the lives of 298 innocent people. Citing officials and diplomats of the 28-member economic union, the group has adopted more stringent economic sanctions against Russia on Tuesday.
According to the sources cited by the Associated Press, the new measures would include a ban on the sale of dual use and sensitive technologies and an arms embargo. The measures were clearly geared to restrict Russia's defense and energy industries, of which both have proven lucrative for the country. One EU official said that Russia will now be required to seek approval from national authorities in acquiring, for example, equipment needed for deep-sea drilling.
Russia will also be banned from auctioning equities or bonds with maturity of more than 90 days in capital markets in the European region, the sources added. The EU official also said that eight individuals and three entities have also been added to the list of people whose assets within the EU would be frozen. The list also included four people reportedly close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It would remain to be seen whether the alleged sanctions would appease member-nations, especially the Netherlands, who has the most number of casualties who perished aboard flight MH17 over East Ukraine at 193. Strait Times said the country, who has been leading the investigation in the circumstances surrounding the crash and the identification of the bodies, has launched an online initiative to compel witnesses to submit photographic and video evidence to aid them in reconstructing the incident. Washington has been quoted as saying that the plane was shot down by Russian-made surface-to-air missile fired by pro-Moscow militants. Kiev has said on Monday that the plane's black boxes provided proof that the crash was initiated by shrapnel from a rocket explosion. Russia and the separatists has since denied accountability in the incident.
