European Union Considering Cloud Service Sanctions To Russia Although Difficult To Implement

EU considers sanctioning Cloud services to Russia. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - The European Union is working on a possible ban on providing cloud services to Russia as part of new sanctions against the Kremlin over its invasion of Ukraine. This was revealed by an EU official to Reuters on Wednesday, June 8. But he noted that the move was technically complicated.

If introduced, it is unclear how the EU ban will affect Russia, as the top cloud providers in Europe are US companies, such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

The European Union last week adopted a new package of sanctions against Russia and Belarus that includes an oil embargo, restrictive measures against Russian banks, and a ban on providing consulting services to Moscow.

An earlier version of the press release on the sanctions package issued by the Council of the European Union on June 3 also referred to a ban on providing cloud services, but was later amended to remove that reference. The sanctions do not appear in the legal text published in official EU journals.

An EU Council press officer said the initial mention of the sanctions on cloud services was a "material error", and declined to say whether it might have been caused by the debate on the matter among EU countries.

An EU official familiar with the decision on sanctions said action on cloud services was never proposed by the European Commission, but added that the EU was working to introduce a ban in a possible future round of sanctions even though it was technically difficult.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Ukraine's presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said that the EU Council's editing of the press release had been carried out without providing a clear explanation and suggesting a possible easing of sanctions.