The Obama administration on Monday imposed new asset freezes and visa bans on seven Russian government officials and sanctions on 17 companies linked to President Vladimir Putin’s “inner circle,” saying that the measures were a response to Russia’s failure to cease provocative acts in Ukraine.
The sanctions, which President Obama previewed during a visit to the Philippines, include additional restrictions on 13 of the Russian companies, imposing licensing requirements “with a presumption of denial” for the export or transfer of any U.S.-made items to those enterprises.
The new action, which includes asset freezes and visa bans on seven government officials and sanctions on 17 companies, comes as the situation in Ukraine remains tense.
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The new sanctions were imposed under executive orders Obama signed last month following Russia’s incursion into the Ukrainian region of Crimea. In a statement, the White House noted that a separate order authorizes the president to sanction “key sectors of the Russian economy” and said he would move to do so “if there is further Russian military intervention in Ukraine.”
“The international community has been unified in its position that Russia must cease its illegal intervention and provocative actions in Ukraine,” the statement said. “The United States, working closely with its partners, remains prepared to impose still greater costs on Russia if the Russian leadership continues these provocations instead of de-escalating the situation.”
Among those identified for sanctions Monday was Igor Sechin, president of Rosneft, Russia’s leading state-owned petroleum company, as well as members of Putin’s government, including Dmitry Kozak, a deputy prime minister.
Russian officials immediately condemned the new sanctions. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov described them as “disgusting.”
The U.S. announcement “demonstrates the utter absence of understanding about what is going on in Ukraine,” Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency. “It is a distorted mirror of foreign policy, not a responsible approach to the situation.”
Ryabkov said the Russian government would take reciprocal measures. “We have never been concealing that we have capabilities for such a response at our disposal, as well as a set of measures, which is rather large, that will be used,” he said, without elaborating.
Previous rounds of sanctions have already taken a toll on the Russian economy, and Standard & Poor’s last week downgraded the country’s debt to the brink of junk status, citing capital flight. On Monday, however, the ruble immediately rose half a percentage point against the dollar after slumping earlier in the day in the expectation that the latest U.S. measures would be more severe.
Officials said the Obama administration had been ready to move on new sanctions Friday but postponed them to coordinate its actions with the European Union. E.U. foreign ministers meeting Monday in Brussels agreed to add 15 Russian and Ukrainian individuals to their existing list of people subject to asset freezes and travel bans. Some, but not all, overlap with U.S. measures imposed in what are now three rounds of sanctions. The new names are to be listed in the European Union’s official register on Tuesday.
Under the new U.S. measures, effective immediately, the Commerce Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls will deny pending applications for export or re-export of certain high-technology defense articles or services to Russia or to occupied Crimea that contribute to Russia’s military capabilities.
In addition, the department is taking actions to revoke any existing export licenses that meet these conditions. All other pending applications and existing licenses will receive a case-by-case evaluation to determine their contribution to Russia’s military capabilities.
Birnbaum reported from Moscow.
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