EU Imposes Major Sanctions on Russia; FIDE President Suspends Activity Amid Ukraine Conflict

Arkady Dvorkovich, the president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), said on Friday he was suspending his activity with the organisation after being placed on the EU list of sanctioned Russians. Dvorkovich, a former Russian deputy prime minister, complained that the designation was “unlawful and unfair”. A statement said Viswanathan Anand, an Indian world chess champion, would take over as the federation’s interim president.

It came as the EU has unveiled its largest sanctions package in four years against Russia, targeting 218 individuals and entities. The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the measures hit more than 100 banks and cryptocurrency operators, more than 40 vessels from Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, as well as several oil refineries. The package adds more than 50 military-industrial entities to the sanctions list, including key actors involved in producing Russia’s long-range drones. The Russian oil price cap is frozen at $44.10 per barrel for 12 months, preventing an automatic increase that would have raised it to about $58.50.

The new listings take the total number of designations to nearly 3,000. There is a full asset-freeze on 94 Russian financial institutions, nearly all banks, and disconnection of 33 Russian banks from the Swift international payments system. Moscow’s stock exchange is added to the sanctions. Internationally, banks or cryptocurrency platforms are hit in countries including Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, India, Georgia, Panama, the Marshall Islands, Belarus, the United Arab Emirates and Africa.

The package also targets actors linked to Russia’s satellite communications system being developed as an alternative to Starlink. There are 56 entities and persons added to the sanctions list for involvement in Russia’s military industrial complex – most of them linked to long-range Garpiya drones. There are 51 entities added to list of companies that face export restrictions on dual-use goods and technology. Some are in third countries: China, including Hong Kong, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and the UAE.

Ukrainian drones hit a warehouse in Russia – reportedly part of the Wildberries chain – triggering a fire that filled the skies over St Petersburg with smoke, the Agence France-Presse and local officials said. The company said two of its warehouses in the city had temporarily halted operations, without giving more details. “St Petersburg came under attack by military-purpose unmanned aerial vehicles … the strike hit civilian infrastructure facilities,” said the local governor, Alexander Beglov. Ukrainian strikes have hit several Wildberries sites in the past week, including those serving Moscow. Kyiv says the Wildberries chain stores and ships sanctioned military goods.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy remained under pressure to restore the ousted defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, to his post after Fedorov said he would not accept alternative roles in government put forward by the president.

The Maga influencer Laura Loomer has turned up in Ukraine where she met with the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after recently reversing her stance on the war. It was unclear what had prompted Loomer’s trip or how she had arranged the meeting with Zelenskyy. Loomer spent years minimising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, amplifying Russian propaganda and abusing Ukraine as “a country full of Nazi apologists … led by a jihadi apologist”.

During her Ukraine visit, Loomer posted: “Just experienced my first air raid in Ukraine. Sirens blaring. This is everyday for every Ukrainian. I often said I don’t care. Looking back, that wasn’t very nice of me to say … We need to have moral clarity.” Loomer appeared to reverse her stance on Ukraine in June after her podcast editor visited Kyiv and Odesa just as they came under heavy attack, and after rival far-right influencer Candace Owens visited and praised Russia. Trump’s supposed Russia-Ukraine war peace broker, Steve Witkoff, has repeatedly visited Russia but has yet to go to Ukraine.

A Russian attack on a food business in the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad killed three and injured at least 10 people, the regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said. The attack caused a fire. Ukrainian strikes killed three people, including a child, and wounded eight in Russia and in Moscow-annexed Crimea on Thursday, local authorities said.