Billions of losses .. the British oil giant withdraws from Russia

share up British group In the capital of the Russian company “Rosneft” to 19.75 percent, which makes the withdrawal a severe blow tofor the Russian economy.

The group said, in a statement, that its general manager, Bernard Looney, would resign from the board of directors.Rosneft‘, with immediate effect.

Bernard Looney, BP’s chief executive, said in a statement that the invasion “caused us to reconsider BP’s position with Rosneft.”

Punitive measures are being taken by Western countries and companies against Moscow, in response to Russia’s start of a military invasion of neighboring Ukraine, in an effort to block the way for the country to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The West did not intervene directly militarily to curb the Russian invasion, but Washington pledged with its allies to impose “destructive” measures for the Russian economy, as punishment for the military operations that began on the twenty-fourth of February.

European move

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Saturday that Brussels will propose to EU member states freezing the assets of the Russian Central Bank, which would mark a major escalation of sanctions against Moscow in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.

After a video meeting attended by the presidents of the United States, Germany, France, Italy and Canada, the official said that the European Union would exclude Russian banks from the SWIFT banking system.

The goal, von der Leyen explained, is to “freeze the financial transactions” of the Russian Central Bank, and thus “make liquidation of its assets impossible”.

The European Commission will present this measure to the member states of the Union in order to strengthen the sanctions adopted, on Friday, by the 27 countries and targeting the financial, energy and transport sectors.

Von der Leyen added that the commission would also propose excluding “a number of Russian banks” from the international SWIFT system.

“This measure will prevent banks from carrying out most of their global financial transactions, and thus Russian exports and imports will be banned,” she said.

The Westerners also agreed to launch a working group “next week” in order to “ensure the effective implementation of the financial sanctions” they decided “by identifying the targeted persons and entities and freezing their assets.”