The European Commission is stepping up moves to ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas in a new set of sanctions on Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, according to an EU official. He is also calling on the Group of Seven nations (G7) and NATO, which includes Russian oil buyer Turkey among its members, to do likewise. Earlier this year, the EU banned Russian LNG trans-shipments at EU ports, putting aside plans to sanction LNG imports outright. Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and France import Russian LNG. Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria rely on gas from the TurkStream pipeline, the sole pipeline carrying Russian gas to Europe since suspected sabotage-related blasts shut down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in September 2022.