WASHINGTON D.C.
U.S. President Barack Obama has announced new sanctions against Russian officials and their inner circles, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff, and opened the door for sanctions against key Russian economic sectors.
Speaking at the White House on Thursday morning, Obama said that the move was a consequence of “an illegal referendum in Crimea, an illegitimate move by the Russians to annex Crimea and dangerous risks of escalation, including threats to Ukrainian personnel in Crimea and threats to southern and eastern Ukraine as well.”
“Because of these choices, the United States is today moving, as we said we would, to impose additional costs on Russia.”
The administration sanctioned 20 individuals on Thursday including members of the Russian government and its inner circle, as well as Bank Rossiya, which the U.S. Treasury Department described as “the personal bank for senior officials of the Russian Federation.”
The list of government officials includes; Viktor Ozerov, the Chairman of the Security and Defense Committee of the Federation Council; Igor Sergun, the head of Russia’s military intelligence service; Sergei Ivanov, Putin’s chief of staff; Alexei Gromov, first deputy chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office and Andrei Fursenko, an aide to Putin.
- Frozen assets
In addition, the administration sanctioned members of the Russian government’s inner circle, including Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, who made billions off of contacts from Gazprom and the Sochi Olympics, according to the Treasury Department, Gennady Timchenko, the founder of Gunvor, a leading commodity trading company, and Yuri Kovalchuk, the largest single shareholder of Bank Rossiya.
The U.S. previously sanctioned 11 individuals – seven Russian and four Ukrainian – on Monday following Crimea’s referendum that saw 96.7% of nationals vote in favor of joining the Russian Federation.
All of those sanctioned are now restricted from doing business in the U.S. or with U.S. individuals or firms. All assets that they have in the U.S. are also frozen.
Following the initial wave of sanctions, some Russian officials who were targeted, including Putin’s top aide Vladislav Surkov, said that the U.S.’ actions would have little to no impact on them.
On a conference call with reporters, senior U.S. administration officials who spoke on condition they would not be named, responded saying, “I would suggest that if any of these individuals, including the ones that we are doing today, have any interest in doing any business outside of Russia in rubles, they're going to find great difficulty in doing so.”
- Putin unaffected
Putin was again not among those targeted for sanctions.
Following the first round of sanctions, U.S. senior government officials said that a head of state is typically not included in initial rounds of sanctions.
Obama also announced that he had signed a new executive order authorizing the U.S. government to impose sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy.
“These sanctions would not only have a significant impact on the Russian economy, but could also be disruptive to the global economy. However, Russia must know that further escalation will only isolate it further from the international community,” he said.
The officials said that the administration is currently looking at Russia’s financial services sector, energy sector, metals and mining, defense and engineering sector.
They added, “This powerful tool will allow us the ability to calibrate our pressure on the Russian government … There should be no mistake that Russia is far more vulnerable and would be severely isolated were we to move forward with these types of sanctions in response to further Russian escalation."
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