WASHINGTON, July 17 (RIA Novosti) – The United States has added new Russian individuals to its list of Ukraine-related sanctions and introduced a so-called Sectoral Sanctions Identification List that affects companies and institutions across various sectors of Russian economy.
The July 16 Update to the Specially Designated Nationals List includes Sergei Neverov, deputy speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Igor Shchegolev, a presidential aide, and Oleg Savelyev, minister for Crimean Affairs.
The entities on the Sectoral Sanctions Identification List include Russia’s defense industry companies, such as weapon-making Almaz-Antey corporation, Kalashnikov concern, KBP Instrument Design Bureau, Research and Production Enterprise Bazalt, communications systems manufacturer Sozvezdie, as well as Corporation NPO Mashinostroyenia and Uralvagonzavod, two machine building companies.
Washington has also sanctioned several Russian entities in the energy and banking sectors. The Treasury added to its sanctions list the country’s biggest oil company Rosneft and a gas-producing major Novatek.
In the banking sector, the United States targeted Russia’s third largest bank Gazprombank and Vnesheconombank, or the Development and Foreign Economic Affairs Bank, although the White House noted the sanctions on these two entities were restricted to a 90-day ban on loans from US banks, rather than the usual asset freezes.
The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics in eastern Ukraine have also been put on the sanctions list. In its Specially Designated Nationals List Update, the United States single-targeted Donetsk People’s Republic’s leader Alexander Boroday, who has been a vocal opponent of the government in Kiev.
The list also features the Feodosia Oil Products Supply company in Crimea, a former Ukrainian republic that joined Russia after a referendum earlier this year causing a barrage of criticism from Washington and Brussels.
The United States and European Union accuse Russia of meddling with Ukraine’s internal affairs, imposing targeted sanctions against a number of Russian officials and companies. The Western sanctions have been gradually extending since the initial introduction after Russia’s reunification with Crimea.
The EU said it has a three-stage sanctions process. The third stage would constitute broad economic sanctions against entire sectors of the Russian economy.
The United States has considerably smaller trading volumes with Russia than Europe, which allows the Obama administration to lobby sanctions against the key sectors of Russian economy, while some EU member states that have close trading ties with Russia oppose the measures.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned the sanction “language," warning of the boomerang effect such limitations can have.
