The European Union will approve a new round of sanctions against Russia on Monday, France's Minister for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad said on Thursday, as Brussels keeps up economic pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
"On Monday, we will take new sanctions against Russia, on 150 additional entities, 50 banks and it's France which proposed the bulk of the entities to add," Haddad told French television channel LCI. "We will continue to put economic pressure on Russia and of course support Ukraine," he added.
Haddad also condemned Russia's decision on Wednesday to ban Le Monde reporter Ariane Chemin, freelance journalist and former Moscow correspondent Paul Gogo, and two French lawmakers, Sacha Houlie and Arthur Delaporte, from entering Russia. "This is intimidation. France will not be intimidated," Haddad said, adding that the lawmakers and journalists "are doing their jobs" and that the two lawmakers are notably involved in the fight against foreign interference.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said earlier on X that the Kremlin presenting the ban as a response to France's expulsion in July of alleged Russian propagandist Xenia Fedorova "confirmed her ties to Russian authorities." Fedorova, the former chief of RT France, was accused by French authorities of spreading Russian misinformation and has since become a prominent figure on the rolling news channel CNews and associated outlets Europe 1 and JDNews.
The announcement follows days of negotiations among EU member states over the latest package of measures against Moscow. It comes as U.S. envoys hold talks in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin and European leaders gather in Dublin for a summit dominated by the war in Ukraine and Europe's security.
