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Baiba Braže at the Sanctions Coordination Council: Sanctions are working, with a growing impact on Russia's economy. The next sanctions package to focus on Russian energy exports, the shadow fleet and its supporters

Republic of Latvia - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

14.11.2025

On 13 November 2025, the Sanctions Coordination Council held its 16th meeting chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže and with participation of representatives from more than 30 public and private sector institutions. The meeting focused on the impact of sanctions on Russia's economy, the work accomplished and further steps to be taken to combat the shadow fleet and its supporters, and the strengthening of international cooperation and coordination for a more effective enforcement and supervision of sanctions.

The Deputy Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit, Paulis Iļjenkovs, the Director of the Customs Administration at the State Revenue Service, Raimonds Zukuls, and the Senior Supervision Expert of the Compliance Division at the Anti-Money-Laundering Department of the Bank of Latvia, Artis Aizupietis, informed the Council about the current situation with the implementation of sanctions. The Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized that sanctions are among the most important instruments of pressure against Russia in order to weaken Russia's ability to finance a war of aggression and to end its aggression against Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Baiba Braže:

"Sanctions are working, and figure clearly demonstrate that sanctions are having a negative impact on the Russian economy. Sanctions by the EU, the U.S., the UK and other international partners are effective and must be further strengthened to constrain Russia and its co-aggressors. Together with Allies, we must continue to streamline coordination to mutually align sanctions against Russia's energy sector and financial institutions, the shadow fleet vessels and their supporting ecosystem, including insurance and service companies. It is also important to continue working on aligning sanctions against Russia and its co-aggressor Belarus. Sanctions must also be targeted against entities in third countries that help circumvent sanctions and support aggression. At the EU level, we are already working on the 20th round of sanctions – we will continue to target Russian energy exports, the shadow fleet and its supporters until the aggression is stopped."

According to Kyiv School of Economics, Russia's budget deficit is expected to reach $70 billion in 2025. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia's lost profits from oil exports have reached almost $160 billion, and companies that account for a quarter of revenues to the Russian budget are on the verge of bankruptcy.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized that Latvia is a model for other EU member states in the effective enforcement of sanctions and thanked Latvian authorities – security services, customs, the Border Guard, the State Revenue Service – for their excellent cooperation in ensuring effective enforcement of sanctions and preventing their circumvention.

"Effective enforcement of sanctions is also a security issue. For Latvia, as a country at the EU's external border, sanctions control is a significant burden, and out of all sanction violations detected at Latvia's external border, for 75% of cargos, customs procedures had been initiated in other EU member states. We regularly discuss this with our colleagues in the EU institutions and Member States, advocating for strengthening the security of the EU's eastern border," Baiba Braže pointed out.