At Estoniaʼs request, one company and one person were excluded from the initial draft sanctions against Russia. This is a Russian company that supplies rare earth elements to the Estonian company Silmet, which processes this material for wind turbines.
This was reported by Radio Liberty editor Rikard Jozwiak.
Subsequently, a spokeswoman for the Estonian mission in Brussels Kerstin Lepik confirmed to ERR that the Russian company had indeed been removed from the list at Estoniaʼs request.
"Yes, we have requested the removal of one Russian company and an individual associated with it from the sanctions list, which includes almost 1,600 people and companies and was approved today by the ambassadors of the member states within the framework of COREPER II," Lepic noted.
At Babelʼs request, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna commented on the situation. He emphasized that Estonia was and remains a strong supporter of sanctions against Russia and did not seek to remove a company or person already under sanctions from the lists.
"It was about the process of preparing new sanctions, during which member states and the European Commission closely consult and consider different proposals," he said.
Tsakhkna explained that during the discussion of the new draft sanctions, it became clear that the NPM Silmet plant in Estonia is of critical importance for European industry in general.
According to him, several European industries depend heavily on NPM Silmet, including the electronics, medical, automotive, aerospace and defense industries, as well as green technologies — the production of electric vehicles and solar panels.
"Our goal must be clear: to increase pressure on Russia while ensuring that sectors critical to Europeʼs security are not dependent on Russian supplies," the minister said.
- On October 7, ambassadors from European Union countries agreed to the largest expansion of sanctions against Russia since the war — 1 646 people and organizations will be added to the list.
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