Countries Express Concern That Russia May Also Blackmail Others

The 19th package of EU sanctions is being blocked not only by Hungary and Slovakia but also by Austria. Vienna seeks to loosen existing sanctions so that Raiffeisen Bank can unfreeze its €2 billion in Russia. Moscow penalized the bank that remained in its market after the war in response to Austria freezing Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska's assets worth €2 billion. The freezing of Deripaska's assets was put as a condition for the return of the funds.

Austria is willing to go along with this and is trying to introduce relaxations in EU legislation, but the Baltic states, Northern Europe, the Czech Republic, Poland, and several other countries are opposed, believing that Russia could begin to blackmail others in this way.