EU to mull Russian oil embargo with Biden set to join talks

EU to mull Russian oil embargo with Biden set to join talks

BRUSSELS: European Union governments will consider whether to impose an oil embargo on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine as they gather this week with US President Joe Biden for a series of summits designed to harden the West’s response to Moscow. Seeking to force a military withdrawal from Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the EU — along with Western allies — has already imposed a panoply of punishing sanctions including a freezing of the assets of the Russian central bank. “We are working on a fifth round of sanctions and many new names are being proposed,” a senior EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity because the discussions are not public. EU governments will take up the discussion among foreign ministers on Monday, before Biden arrives in Brussels on Thursday for summits with NATO’s 30 allies, as well as the EU and in a Group of Seven (G7) format including Japan. The Kremlin has so far not been moved to change course in Ukraine by four rounds of EU sanctions imposed over the past three weeks, including on 685 Russians and Belarusians and on Russian finance and trade. That leaves the bloc with the economically toughest choice of