New US sanctions against Russian officials
The United States announced on Thursday a new salvo of sanctions targeting around twenty Russian officials, including bankers, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group and a close friend of President Vladimir Putin accused of having coordinated the forced displacement of Ukrainian children. These sanctions have the effect of freezing any assets of the designated persons and limiting their financial transactions as well as, more generally, their access to international financial markets.
“The United States will continue to take strong action to hold Russia accountable for its war crimes, atrocities and aggression” in Ukraine, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
Twenty-two officials and entities are thus placed on the United States blacklist, in particular relatives of the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, himself already sanctioned, as well as senior officials of the Russian banking system, including Vladimir Komlev, who heads the Mir payment system.
At the same time, the Treasury and Commerce Department are banning all exports to Russia and Belarus of computer materials in a bid, according to the Treasury, to impede reconstruction efforts by the Russian military, which suffered heavy losses in Ukraine. since February.
The sanctions target a close associate of the Russian president in the person of Maria Lvova-Belova, who heads the Russian Presidential Commission for the Rights of Children, and who is accused of having “coordinated the forced displacement to Russia of thousands of Ukrainian children”according to the press release.
They also concern family members of the leader of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, including his wives and daughters. Presented as “the henchman” of the Russian President, he has “accumulated extreme wealth with a house in the Emirates, a private zoo, luxury vehicles and a large slush fund”according to the text.
Finally, the United States targets Task Force Rusich, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group associated with the Wagner Group, accused of having participated in combat alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, in particular near the city of Kharkiv in 2022. The Group Wagner is reputed to be linked to Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigojine, himself considered close to the Russian president.