Several yachts regularly used by the Russian president, according to Washington, are also on the US blacklist.
The Biden government today issued a series of new sanctions aimed at punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukrainewhich target many luxury yachts associated with the Russian president Vladimir Putinan oligarch who leads a large steel plant and a cellist whom Washington says acts as a mediator for the Russian leader.
The State Department also imposed sanctions on the representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova.
“The United States will continue to support the people of Ukraine while promoting the accountability of President Putin and those who allow Russian aggression,” Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken said in a statement.
The Ministry of Commerce added also 71 sites in Russia and Belarus in the list of entitiesin a move aimed at restricting the Russian military’s access to technology, the White House said.
An entity listing companies faces sweeping restrictions on shipments to Russia of both US and foreign products, technology and software, whether manufactured with US equipment, technology or software.
The United States and other Western countries have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia’s economy since the February 24 invasion, and Washington has vowed to take more action as the war continues.
Addressing members of Congress on the state of the Union in March, President Joe Biden said the United States would work to seize yachts, luxury homes and private jets of wealthy Russians linked to Putin.
The US Treasury Department located it today two ships, the Graceful with the flag of Russia and the Olympia with the flag of the Cayman Islands whose ownership status is related to Putin. The Russian president, who was blacklisted by the United States a day after invading Ukraine on February 24, made numerous yacht trips last year, including one to the Black Sea with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the ministry said in a statement. .
He also targeted two other yachtsShellest and Nega, which as the US Treasury Department pointed out, were used by Putin and belonged to a Russian company subject to sanctions.
In addition, US sanctions include Imperial Yachts, a Monaco-based finance company that allows yacht owners, including Russian oligarchs, to charter their boats when not in use, and an airline that the US Treasury Department said was involved. in a plan to transport aircraft to an offshore company to avoid sanctions.
The US government also added him to the sanctions list Sergei Pavlovich Roldugin, cellist and conductor, who has already been sanctioned by the European Union over his ties to Putin, saying Roldugin is “part of a system that manages President Putin’s offshore wealth.” The US decree freezes Rollingin’s assets in the US and prohibits Americans from doing business with him.
Putin defended Roldugin in 2016 after his name was included in the Panama Papers leaks, denying there was anything corrupt about his friend’s involvement in offshore companies.
The State Department also imposed sanctions on five Russian oligarchs and members of the Russian elite, including Alexei Mordasov, one of Russia’s richest men.
The measures blacklist Mordashev, his family members and his companies, including Severstal, a major steel producer, and the Nord Gold mine.
Zelensky: Russia occupies 20% of Ukrainian territory
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyaddressing politicians and the people of Luxembourg today, said that Russian troops currently control almost 20% of the territory of Ukraine, but since the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion, Ukrainian forces have liberated 1,017 settlements, transmits the Ukrainian Ukrinform news agency.
“Russian troops have invaded 3,620 settlements, of which 1,017 have been liberated and 2,603 ​​remain to be liberated. “Based on the current situation to date, about 20% of our territory is under the control of the occupiers, almost 125,000 square kilometers, an area significantly larger than the area of ​​all the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg).”said Zelensky.
Alongside Ukrainian President reminds Russia that unleashed war against Ukraine eight years agoand because of its occupation operations from 2014 to February 24 of this year controlled almost 43,000 square kilometers of Crimean territory and a third of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The Ukrainian president also said that at the moment about 300,000 square kilometers on Ukrainian territory are trapped by unexploded ordnance and missiles.
Zelensky added that 12 million Ukrainians have been turned into internal refugees, while more than 5 million Ukrainians, mostly women and children, have fled abroad.
