US orders sanctions on Russian officials
Police walk along a rally for Ukrainian national unity in the eastern Ukrainan city of Donetsk on April 28, 2014. AFP PHOTO / Alexander KHUDOTEPLY
What you need to know:
- The companies hit include top banks as Moscow warns that it will unveil its list
MANILA, Monday
The United States on Monday imposed new sanctions on seven Russian officials and 17 firms linked to President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle to punish the Kremlin for failing to ease tensions in Ukraine.
Deepening the worst East-West showdown since the end of the Cold War, Washington is also tightening licensing requirements for certain hi-tech exports to Russia that could have a military use, the White House announced in a statement issued in Manila, where President Barack Obama is on a state visit.
“The United States has taken further action today in response to Russia’s continued illegal intervention in Ukraine and provocative acts that undermine Ukraine’s democracy and threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney in a statement.
Mr Carney said Russia had done nothing to meet the terms of a deal agreed in Geneva with Ukraine, the European Union and the United States and designed to rein in pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine.
“Russia’s involvement in the recent violence in eastern Ukraine is indisputable,” he said. The sanctions follow up on previously announced measures targeting other members of Putin’s political and inner circle and a Russian bank.
They do not however specifically target sectors of the Russian economy like energy and mining.
The White House said those measures would only be imposed by the United States and its European allies if Russia actually invades Ukraine.
A senior US official said the sanctions would be rolled out in coordination with new European Union sanctions, and that existing measures were already having a “substantial impact” on the Russian economy.
Diplomatic sources in Brussels meanwhile said that a further 15 officials would be subject to the same visa bans and asset freezes already imposed on 50 others.
Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency that his country would respond to the sanctions.
“We are certain that this response will have a painful effect on Washington,” he said.
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Russia’s “dangerous and inflammatory actions against Ukraine are illegal and illegitimate”. He said in a statement that Russia’s economic growth forecasts had “dropped sharply, capital flight has accelerated and higher borrowing costs reflect declining confidence in the market outlook”.
The companies sanctioned include Avia Group limited, the Severny Morsoy Bank, InvestCapital Bank, Transoil, Volga Resources Group, SMP Bank, Sobin Bank and Zest Leasing. (AFP)
