Journalist in Irpin, Ukraine. Photo by Serhii Myhalchuk (war.ukraine.ua)
Washington/Brussels/Moscow/Kyiv: The USA and the European Union imposed fresh sanctions against Russia today. While the USA’s was the third since March 15, it was the fourth package of sanctions by the EU following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Great Britain too expanded its sanctions list against high-profile Russian individuals today.
In addition to the sanctions imposed today, the US Department of the Treasury also expanded its Russia sanctions authorities and identified the aerospace, marine, and electronics sectors of the Russian Federation economy which allows for sanctions to be imposed on any individual or entity determined to operate or have operated in any of those sectors and provides an expanded ability to swiftly impose additional economic costs on Russia for its war of choice in Ukraine.
“These actions demonstrate our resolve to hold the Russian Federation accountable for its aggression against Ukraine and commitment to take further actions against persons supporting evasion of the sanctions that the United States and our allies and partners have put in place. We will use all authorities at our disposal to enforce sanctions, expose and identify malicious actors, and promote accountability for President Putin’s war of choice,” Antony J. Blinken, US Secretary of State said. He further asserted, “We will continue to target President [Valdimir] Putin’s war machine with sanctions from every angle, until this senseless war of choice is over. The Russian Federation not only continues to violate the sovereignty of Ukraine with its attacks, but it is escalating the devastation of population centers, including schools, hospitals, residential areas, and places where civilians are taking shelter from the Russian bombardment.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen disclosed that the package agreed upon by EU leaders at a summit last week also blocks Russia’s access to funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The latest sanctions will be in place after they are published in the EU’s official journal.
The Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andrei Yerma, meanwhile stated today that an embargo on Russian oil and gas should be a priority for all countries. “There is simply no other way out,” Yerma said.
After the March 15 and March 24 designations of individuals and companies in Russia’s defence-industrial base “that are directly supporting Putin’s war machine”, the United States today targetted operators in the Russian technology sector to prevent it from evading “unprecedented multilateral sanctions and procure critical western technology”. The Department of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated 21 entities and 13 individuals as part of its crackdown on the Kremlin’s sanctions evasion networks and technology companies, “which are instrumental to the Russian Federation’s war machine”. It claimed one of the technology companies designated today exports more than 50 per cent of Russian microelectronics and is Russia’s largest chipmaker.
Treasury also determined that three new sectors of the Russian Federation economy were subject to sanctions as a part of the Administration’s comprehensive response to ensure restrictions on Russia’s access to resources, sectors of their economy “that are essential to supplying and financing the continued invasion of Ukraine”.
Russia decried the sanctions, and said the EU policy of sanctions against it “oversteps all limits”. In Tunxi in China, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov continued to blame the USA and told the Chinese news agency, Xin Hua, that the main cause of the Ukrainian crisis is the policy that NATO headed by the United States conducted for several decades after the disappearance of the USSR.
“They continued to move the military infrastructure further to the east, pumped Ukraine with weapons, created military infrastructure there. This threatened Russia’s security and was a gross violation of the decisions taken in the OSCE [The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] and in the context of Russia-NATO relations not to increase their own security at the expense of the security of others,” Lavrov emphasized.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation stated in response to the EU sanctions that the EU’s actions were not only driving the relationship with Russia into a “deadlock” but were similarly jeopardizing the well-being and security of its own citizens, as well as the stability of the global financial and economic system.
In response to the unilateral sanctions of the European Union, the Russian side, “acting on the basis of reciprocity, which is fundamental for international law”, expanded significantly the list of representatives of EU Member States and institutions who will be denied entry to the Russian Federation.
“The restrictions apply to the top leadership of the EU, a number of European commissioners and heads of EU military bodies, as well as the overwhelming majority of members of the European Parliament that have advanced anti-Russian policies,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stated today. The reciprocal Russian blacklist also included high-level officials including government and parliament members of some EU Member States, public and media figures “who are personally responsible for promoting illegal anti-Russian sanctions, inflaming Russophobic sentiments and infringing on the rights and freedoms of Russian speakers”.
Russia said the relevant note by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been transmitted to the Delegation of the European Union in Moscow in due order, notifying them of the measure undertaken.
“We reaffirm that any further unfriendly action by the EU and its Member States will inevitably be met with a forceful response,” the Russian foreign ministry stated.
Russia criticised Brussels for “arbitrarily imposing unilateral restrictions against numerous Russian citizens and companies”. It claimed the EU openly released the personal data of these citizens and companies “in contravention” of every international legal norm currently in force. “Absurd and unlawful “criteria” are hastily being cooked up in order to add more names to the list,” Russia claimed.
Hitting hard at the EU, Moscow claimed that while attempting to portray Russia as the perpetrator of the systemic crisis of European security, Brussels officials refused to admit that they themselves had over many years connived at the hardening of Russophobic and neo-Nazi sentiments in Ukraine as well as its militarization and alignment with NATO efforts to militarily contain our country.
“In spite of our repeated pleas, they indulged the Kiev (Kyiv) regime’s sabotage of the Minsk “Package of Measures” and its stifling of the Russian language in Ukraine. They turned a blind eye to the methodical extermination of peaceful residents of Donbass, Russia charged. It added: “Now, instead of drawing lessons from what happened Brussels is drifting by inertia towards an impasse by imposing restrictive measures against Russia. Moreover, it seeks to involve other sovereign countries against their national interests in these pointless and illegal efforts, fraught with a further escalation in Europe and the wider world. Impose unprecedented pressure and blackmail upon them.”
Moscow claimed that just as in many other aspects of the “hybrid war” declared by the West against Russia, its citizens, Russian speakers abroad as well as leading Russian companies, the EU’s intention was evident – to force Russia to renounce its vital interests. “This is part and parcel of the collective West’s policy to contain Russia, to subjugate our development to the Western goal of reestablishing its unchallenged global domination, to prevent Russia from ensuring its national security and deny it the right to promote its own constructive agenda on the world stage,” it stated and claimed, “The events of recent weeks demonstrate the futility of these efforts”.
Meanwhile, Washington pledged to continue imposing severe costs on the Russian Federation in response to President Putin’s “illegal war”. It said today, “we are targeting entities and individuals in our efforts to shut down the Kremlin’s sanctions evasion networks, which play an important role in the Russian Federation’s ability to continue its unconscionable war on the citizens of Ukraine”. Claiming that these designations will further impede Russia’s access to western technology and the international financial system, the US pledged to continue to target “President Putin’s war machine with sanctions from every angle until this senseless war of choice is over”.
“The Russian Federation not only continues to violate the sovereignty of Ukraine with its attacks, but it is escalating the devastation of population centres, including schools, hospitals, residential areas, and places where civilians are taking shelter from the Russian bombardment,” Blinken said.
Meanwhile, today on the 36th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, about 75 thousand citizens managed to evacuate from Mariupol by humanitarian corridors. Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk, however, said that 100 thousand more still needed to be transported to safe places. Earlier in the day, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, said “there is hell in Mariupol, there is a disaster that the whole world knows about, but no one has enough determination to help stop the disaster in this city and other cities of Ukraine”. He made the statement after a representative of the Azov special forces regiment reported that in blockaded Mariupol, Russian invaders were looting apartments, killing and raping city residents.
– global bihari bureau
