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Poland: Tougher Russia sanctions set for Thursday

EU could soon push for phase 3 sanctions: Polish min
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EU could soon push for phase 3 sanctions: Polish min

The European Union could push through "phase three" sanctions against Russia as early as Thursday this week, the foreign minister of Poland told CNBC, if EU leaders get the legal sign-off from their parliaments.

Current "phase two" sanctions, which involve targeting individuals for travel bans and asset freezes could be upped to the next level, which includes suspending Russian access to capital markets, Poland's foreign minister Radek Sikorski said.

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The EU has threatened more severe measures before, without being able to find consensus, however Sikorski said the probability of phase three sanctions getting pushed through is "quite high" this time.

"The reason we didn't take the formal decision yesterday is because of legal reasons reserved to the European Council at the level of heads of government. But the European Commission has a ready paper of targeted sanctions," he told CNBC.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) listens to Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy during a meeting at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid on March 4, 2014. Lavrov said today that threats of sanctions against Moscow are counter-productive and will not change its position on the Ukraine crisis.
Dani Pozo | AFP | Getty Images

"If the diplomats in Brussels get the right instructions from their capital cities, it could be introduced as early as Thursday," he added.

A tougher round of sanctions, which were decided on by the European Council earlier this month, includes six new restrictive measures such as :

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-A new list of entities and persons, including those from the Russian Federation, that are materially or financially supporting actions against Ukraine will be established by the Council by the end of July.

-New financing operations in the Russian Federation by the European Investment Bank will be suspended and member states will coordinate with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to adopt a similar position.

Sikorski said a fresh round of sanctions, which could cause Russia's borrowing costs to rise, could encourage Putin to "make new calculations", where other sanctioning measures had failed to limit his actions.

Speaking on France's decision to go ahead with the sale of a warship to Russia and the U.K. licenses still in place to sell British weapons to the country, Sikorski said past contracts and licenses are an "issue".

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"The machinery of government always needs some time to mop up decisions taken in the past," he said.

"France does have a problem, the current French president inherited this contract from his predecessor and I understand its cancellation would be very expensive, but there are things that France can do to show that it is committed to stopping the Russian meddling in Ukraine," he added.