EU sanctions against Russia are tightening, as it continues its "special military operations" in Ukraine .

Here they are in detail.

FINANCE - Provision for a ban on financing the Russian Federation, its government and the Central Bank, limiting the ability of the Russian state and government to access EU capital and financial markets and services. No loans, shares or bonds can be traded on European, US and UK markets.

ENERGY - To hit the competitiveness of Russian refineries, EU sanctions are for the moment limited to a ban on the export of certain European technologies for oil refining. These are those that are used to restructure the Moscow refineries to bring them into line with the Euro 6 standard, and therefore be authorized to export to the EU.

HI-TECH - The export of certain products that can help improve Russian military capability in sectors such as electronics, computers, telecommunications and sensors will be controlled, i.e. prohibited unless legitimate justifications are presented. Exceptions for example only for essential products in civil nuclear safety. Limits on exports of the same type of sanctions have been decided by countries such as the USA, Japan and Canada. On the other hand, no measures have been imposed on luxury goods, from fashion to diamonds. The European Commission has estimated that the impact of limits on hi-tech products is much higher.

BLACK LIST - In the blacklist that provides for the freezing of the assets of high-profile Russian personalities, other members of the Duma and the Moscow Security Council enter but above all Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister Serghei Lavrov. And investigations have begun to understand where the assets of the tsar and the foreign minister are in the EU.

There is currently no agreement on the Swift international payment system. The hypothesis continues to divide but the front of the perplexed countries, led by Germany and Italy, has begun to soften. Berlin Finance Minister Christian Lindner explained that the option "is on the table". Sources from Palazzo Chigi remarked that "no exception was requested" on the sanctions. In Brussels, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio added that Italy "does not veto, has always voted in a compact manner with the other EU members on the Commission's proposals and will continue to do so". France has already said it is in favor of excluding Moscow from the payment system, like Spain and as Britain had already done. If the EU excludes Russia from Swift and China does not, the impact for Moscow would certainly be less devastating. But the desire to punish the "Nazi Putin" - copyright of the EU Commission - is growing by the hour.