On July 23 the European Union used its newest sanctions tool for the first time. Buried inside its twenty first package against Russia was a mechanism that had not existed a year earlier: the power to ban transactions with any refinery anywhere in the world found to be processing Russian crude, not just inside Russia. Brussels pointed it at the Kulevi Oil Refinery on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. On paper it looked like the sharpest tool the EU has built since the oil price cap. Then came the fine print. The ban on Kulevi does not take effect until January 25, 2027, six months after the listing, specifically to give the refinery time to walk away from Russian crude first. The EU built a weapon and handed its first target the schedule to dodge it.
The twenty first package, adopted July 23, is the heaviest round of EU sanctions since the war began, carrying two hundred sixteen new designations across banking, shipping, and energy. Thirty three additional Russian banks lost access to European clearing on August 13. The oil price cap adjustment mechanism has been frozen for a year, through July 2027, so Russia cannot profit from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. All of that extends tools Brussels has used for years and knows how to calibrate.
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