Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on Facebook that all actions taken so far against Russia and Russian citizens and economic entities have shown that sanctions are effective only when there are no gates or exceptions in them.

Meanwhile, the list of Russian banks that will be subject to EU sanctions, published on Wednesday, March 2, did not include two large banks: Sberbank and Gazprombank. According to EU officials, the omission of these two banks is due to the fact that they handle payments for Russian energy resources supplied to Europe – mainly gas and oil.

One of the EU officials explained that it would be best to exclude certain transactions from the SWIFT system, but it cannot technically single out specific transactions. Therefore, Sberbank and Gazprombank had to be excluded, as these are the two main banks that manage payments for energy products. Some EU Member States are very dependent on supplies from Russia.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki reacted to Brussels’ decision yesterday evening.

“The decision that the Russian Sberbank and Gazprombank have been excluded from EU sanctions due to “transactions related to energy supplies to the EU” is unacceptable. As Poland, we demand that all Russian entities, thanks to which Russia finances the war in Ukraine, be effectively and fully covered by sanctions”, stressed the Polish Prime Minister.

“Putin uses money earned in the West to finance the war! Let’s stop it as it possible, without such exceptions”, added Polish PM.

Adrian Andrzejewski