The new US sanctions target Russian lawmakers, billionaire Viktor Vekselberg and three members of Dmitry Peskov’s family.
The United States imposed sanctions on Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, three relatives of President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman and lawmakers, in the last punishment for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has faced a series of measures since it launched its invasion on February 24, the biggest attack on a European state since World War II.
Those affected by Friday’s sanctions include 10 people on the board of VTB Bank, Russia’s second-largest lender, and 12 members of the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, the US Treasury Department said. . it’s a statement.
“Treasury continues to hold Russian officials accountable for enabling Putin’s unjustified and unprovoked war,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was attacked on March 3. Friday’s measures extend to his wife and two adult children. They lead “lavish lifestyles that are incongruous with Peskov’s civil servant salary,” the Treasury said in a news release.
There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.
Four board members of Novikombank, including Chairman Elena Georgieva, and ABR Management and four of its board members, including Bank Rossiya Chairman Dmitri Lebedev and St. Petersburg Deputy Governor Vladimir Knyaginin, were also targeted. sanctions, the State Department said.
In mid-February, Russia’s lower house of parliament voted to ask Putin to recognize two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent.
Eleven members and speaker Vyacheslav Volodin were added to the sanctions list on Friday.
“Today’s designations hold even more accountable the actors who were directly responsible for the illegitimate and illegal recognition of Russia… and facilitated the false pretext used by Putin to justify the… unprovoked war against Ukraine,” Treasury said. .
Justifying the move at the time, Volodin said: “Kiev is not observing the Minsk agreements. Our citizens and compatriots living in Donbas need our help and support.” The Minsk accords are a pair of accords signed in 2014 and 2015 in hopes of ending violence between pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and the government in Kiev.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” which it says is designed not to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbor’s military capabilities and capture what it sees as dangerous nationalists.