On 2 July 2016, the Council of the European Union amended the decision 2014/512/CFSP, concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilizing the situation in Ukraine, extending the measures provided in it for further six months, until 31 January 2017.

The economic sanctions target Russia’s financial, energy and defense sectors, and the area of dual-use goods. In particular, they:

• limit access to EU primary and secondary capital markets for five major Russian majority state-owned financial institutions, and their majority-owned subsidiaries established outside of the EU, as well as three major Russian energy and three defense companies;
• impose an export and import ban on trade in arms;
• establish an export ban for dual-use goods for military use or military end users in Russia;
• reduce Russian access to certain sensitive technologies and services that can be used for oil production and exploration.

In addition to these economic sanctions, other European measures are in place in response to the crisis in Ukraine, including targeted individual restrictive measures (visa ban and asset freeze) against 146 people and 37 entities until 15 September 2016, and restrictive measures in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol, recently extended until 23 June 2017.