U.S. sanctions Russians over Ukraine

By Steve Holland and Maria Tsvetkova

WASHINGTON/KOSTYANTYNIVKA, Ukraine Mon Apr 28, 2014 10:50am EDT

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  States froze assets and imposed visa bans on seven powerful Russians close to President Vladimir Putin on Monday and also sanctioned 17 companies in reprisal for Moscow's actions in Ukraine.

President Barack Obama said the moves, which add to measures taken when Russia annexed Crimea last month, were to stop Putin fomenting rebellion in eastern Ukraine. Obama added he was holding broader measures against Russia's economy "in reserve".
Among those sanctioned were Igor Sechin, head of state energy firm Rosneft, and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak. A Russian deputy foreign minister was quoted as expressing "disgust" at the White House announcement.

 

 

 

The European Union, with more to lose than Washington from sanctions against Russia, a major energy supplier and trading partner for the EU, is also expected to announce new penalties after member governments reached a deal, diplomats said.
The United States will deny export licenses for any high-technology items that could contribute to Russian military capabilities and will revoke any existing export licenses that meet these conditions, the White House said.
It was the third round of sanctions that the United States has imposed over Crime and troop build-up on the border. All the sanctions have been aimed at individuals and businesses.
"Russia's involvement in the recent violence in eastern Ukraine is indisputable," a White House statement said.
Moscow insists that a rebellion among Russian-speakers in the east against the Kiev authorities which took power after the overthrow of a Kremlin-backed president in February is a home-grown response to a coup and denies having forces on the ground.
HOSTAGE FOREIGNERS
In eastern Ukraine on Monday, pro-Moscow rebels showed no sign of curbing their uprising, seizing public buildings in another town in the east, Kostyantynivka. The high-profile mayor of another eastern city Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest, was fighting for life after being shot while out bicycling.
Germany demanded Russia act to help secure the release of seven unarmed European military monitors, including four Germans, who have been held by the rebels since Friday.
U.S. officials had said the new list would include Putin's "cronies" in the hope of changing his behavior.
Obama said: "The goal is not to go after Mr. Putin personally. The goal is to change his calculus with respect to how the current actions that he's engaging in Ukraine could have an adverse impact on the Russian economy over the long haul.
"To encourage him to actually walk the walk and not just talk the talk when it comes to diplomatically resolving the crisis in Ukraine."
Nevertheless, such measures have done nothing so far to deter Putin, who overturned decades of post-Cold War diplomacy last month to seize and annex Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and has since massed tens of thousands of troops on the frontier. He acted after Ukraine's pro-Russian president was ousted in February by protesters demanding closer links with Europe.
Moscow has in the past shrugged off targeted sanctions like those Obama announced on Monday as pointless.