Ukraine Crisis: New EU Sanctions Target Russia

A new round of EU sanctions against Russia have been imposed, with Moscow threatening to retaliate with further measures of its own.

The tit-for-tat economic penalties - stemming from Russia's actions in Ukraine - also involve the US which is set to move ahead with steps against the country's financial, energy and defence sectors.

The EU and the US have said the sanctions can be withdrawn within weeks if the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine holds, though it has claimed that Russian troops remain there in support of separatists.

The EU's new measures include limiting Russia's access to financial markets and targeting more officials with travel bans and asset freezes.

BP holds a stake of almost 20% in Rosneft

Those individuals include leading politicians Igor Lebedev and Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

It has been suggested that Russia's top oil producers and pipeline operators Rosneft, Transneft and Gazprom Neft will be on a list of Russian state-owned firms that will not be allowed to raise capital or borrow on European markets.

Such measures threaten to hit earnings at BP, which has a near-20% stake in Rosneft.

The FTSE 100 company revealed in July that its share of Rosneft underlying net income was $1bn in the second quarter of 2014 - revenue that is crucial to BP as it continues its recovery from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

President Putin has denied Russian troops are in eastern Ukraine

News that the latest round of sanctions had been agreed in Brussels drew a furious response from Moscow.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said: "By taking this step, the European Union has de facto made its choice against a peaceful resolution of the inter-Ukrainian crisis.

"Today Brussels and the leaders of the EU nations need to give a clear answer to EU citizens as to why they are putting them under the risks of confrontation, economic stagnation and unemployment."

Russia has denied any involvement in the Ukraine crisis, despite Western accusations that it has been arming separatist rebels and deploying troops in the neighbouring former Soviet republic since the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March.

Many EU member states had been loath to increase the sanctions against Russia for fear of jeopardising their close trade relationships with Moscow.

The impact has been blamed for a slump in business confidence in many euro area economies, where recovery in output has stalled.

Firms in countries such as Germany, which rely on Russian gas for energy, fear Russia will respond to the sanctions by turning off the taps.

Russia, which has revised sharply down its own growth estimates for 2014 amid plunging stock market and rouble values, had already issued a veiled threat that it could ban Western airlines from using Russian airspace - a move that would lead to higher fuel costs and delays for flights to Asia by European airlines.

Carriers had already had to lengthen journey times to bypass airspace over eastern Ukraine in the wake of the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in July - widely blamed on Russia.

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