‘We don’t need sanctions that bark, we need sanctions that bite’ de Croos

Arriving at this evening’s special European Council on the Russian invasion of Ukraine Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croos said that sanctions need to bite.

“What is important is that you touch the Russian economy, that you touch the economic military complex,” he said. “ I'm open for discussion, but we need to make it extremely difficult for them to operate in an international financial environment.”

Asked if sanctions will stop Russia, de Croos said: “Sanctions work, we've seen that in the past. I'm quite sure that it has an impact, and it will be felt on the Russian side. As I said, we don't need sanctions which have big words or that bark, we need sanctions that bite and if it bites, I think it needs to bite in a very thorough way and I don't think we should be coming back for a third package. The second package needs to be good enough.”

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