Bloomberg news agency writes today that the European Union countries are still struggling to agree on new sanctions on Russia to tighten loopholes and tackle circumvention.

“That goal is particularly acute in terms of cracking down on Moscow’s ability to source banned technologies through third countries - such as the United Arab Emirates, Armenia, Kazakhstan and others in central Asia,” Bloomberg writes.

The European Commission proposed a new mechanism to target countries that aren’t doing enough to prevent Russia from evading export restrictions.

“If diplomatic pressure proves ineffective, the mechanism would give member states the power to adopt targeted export restrictions on key goods. It would feature two lists: one of restricted goods, and the other of countries which the listed items can’t be sent to,” Bloomberg writes.

“Some governments worry that targeting third countries could damage the EU’s relations with those nations and push them even closer to Russia,” the news agency’s interlocutors said.