Incidentally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi also addressed this issue in his video address to the Belgian federal parliament. However, a boycott of Russian diamonds is not included in the 5th EU sanctions package.
Belgium has so far frozen about €200 billion in Russian assets and possessions – far more than, for example, Germany or Austria, where such moves appear to be much more complicated and where dependence on energy from Russia is much greater. Belgium, on the other hand, is much less dependent on Russian gas or other fossil fuels from Russia.
“So we would not oppose a boycott of energy supplies from Russia,” said the Belgian finance minister. In Belgium, the view seems to be that boycotting Russian oil would be much more efficient, given that Russia earns significantly more from oil supplies to the Union than it does from gas sales to Europe.
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