Just three months after blocking it, the European Union has cleared raw Russian sable pelts to return to its market, according to Euractiv. The reversal sits inside the sanctions package Brussels adopted last week, after Italy and Greece pushed for the exemption. Coats made from the fur stay barred from the bloc.
A reprieve tucked into the toughest package yet
The bloc had caught sable in its sanctions net only in April. Now the exemption rides inside the 21st package of measures Brussels adopted last week, the round it promoted as its heaviest economic hit on Moscow to date. The change appears in the bloc's published sanctions text.
Euractiv says the European Commission defended the carve-out on supply grounds. It argued that Russia dominates the global sable market and that European makers have few alternative suppliers.
"Apparently, it's very difficult to get them anywhere else," a senior EU official told Euractiv.
The sable is a small carnivorous animal from the forests of northern Asia, and its pelt is considered exceptionally soft and prized by luxury fashion houses. A single coat can run into the hundreds of thousands of euros.
An EU diplomat told Euractiv that Italy and Greece drove the lobbying, the two biggest buyers of Russian pelts inside the bloc.
EU adopts largest sanctions package on Russia: 218 names and 100+ banks and crypto platforms among those on the list
Coats stay out as Europe debates its own farms
The sanctions still block finished fur garments in both directions — barred from entering the bloc and from reaching Russian buyers, The EU’s wider luxury-goods restrictions also cover products such as diamonds and caviar. Greece's fur producers, clustered around Kastoria and Siatista, fought those wartime measures in 2022, warning they would kill the industry.
It lands as Brussels weighs a bloc-wide ban on its own fur farming, after a citizens' initiative demanded an end to the practice. Only a few EU countries, including Spain, Greece, Hungary, Finland, and Poland, still have active fur farms.
