United States’ Treasury Department announced just hours’ earlier fresh new sanctions against Russia targeting government officials, businessmen, and weapon business. According to the statement, the department designated seven Russian oligarchs and 12 companies they own or control, 17 senior Russian government officials, and a state-owned Russian weapons trading company and its subsidiary, a Russian bank.
All assets which are subject to U.S. jurisdiction of the designated individuals and entities, and of any other entities blocked by operation of law as a result of their ownership by a sanctioned party, are frozen, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealings with them. Additionally, non-U.S. persons could face sanctions for knowingly facilitating significant transactions for or on behalf of the individuals or entities blocked today.
The statement from the Treasury department quoted Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as saying, “The Russian government operates for the disproportionate benefit of oligarchs and government elites……..The Russian government engages in a range of malign activity around the globe, including continuing to occupy Crimea and instigate violence in eastern Ukraine, supplying the Assad regime with material and weaponry as they bomb their own civilians, attempting to subvert Western democracies, and malicious cyber activities. Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities.”
This fresh action came after the United States expelled 60 Russia diplomats and closed its Seattle embassy in response to its alleged involvement in the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal, who was residing in the United Kingdom and his daughter Yulia.
