Patrtriarch Kirill of Moscow has been removed from an EU-sanctions list of Kremlin-associates after a last-minute intervention by the government in Hungary. The intervention took place during a meeting of EU member-state ambassadors in Brussels on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Hungary\u2019s move surprised diplomats: ambassadors believed that consensus on the package\u2019s provisions \u2014 the EU\u2019s latest response to Russian aggression in Ukraine \u2014 had been reached at an extraordinary summit of EU heads of state on Monday. Diplomats assumed that the Thursday meeting was merely to formalising the agreement and make technical arrangements for the imposition of the new, wider sanctions.<\/p>\n
For some hours, however, the whole list of sanctioned individuals was in doubt, as Hungary\u2019s representative refused to accept the package unless Patriarch Kirill\u2019s name was removed.<\/p>\n
The sanctions package, the EU\u2019s sixth in response to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, covered both personal measures against leading figures in the Russian regime (freezing their assets and banning them from travel in the EU), and corporate moves to severely restrict imports of Russian oil to the EU single market.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPatriarch Kirill is a religious leader. Respecting fundamental principles of religious freedom, the government of Hungary considers it inappropriate for the EU to include his name among those who would be specifically sanctioned.\u201dhttps:\/\/t.co\/RdW2KgQvy8<\/a><\/p>\n — Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 3, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n