United States imposes sanctions on Kremlin elites

The United States has imposed sanctions on dozens of Russian officials, members of their families, and business people for enabling Putin’s war against Ukraine.

“Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a new round of sanctions targeting Russian and Kremlin elites, oligarchs, and Russia’s political and national security leaders who have supported Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine,” reads the statement released by OFAC.

In particular, restrictions were imposed on the three closest relatives of Dmitry Peskov (wife Tatiana Navka and two adult children, Nikolay Peskov and Elizaveta Peskova), Russian tycoon and Kremlin insider Viktor Vekselberg; as well as the Management Board of the sanctioned VTB Bank (a total of ten people). Additionally, OFAC designated 12 members of the Russian State Duma, including Vyacheslav Victorovich Volodin, who is also a permanent member of Russia’s Security Council.

“Treasury continues to hold Russian officials to account for enabling Putin’s unjustified and unprovoked war. Today’s actions also further isolate the severely damaged Russian economy by prohibiting trade in products that are key to the economic and financial interests of all Russian elites,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen.

Earlier, U.S. President Joe Biden announced additional steps by the United States, the G7, and the EU to punish Russia for its aggression and bring it to greater responsibility. This includes depriving Russia of its "most favored nation" status in international trade; extending the ban on important items of Russian imports; imposing additional sanctions on Russian oligarchs and corrupt officials.

In addition, Western countries imposed restrictions on Russia's use of digital assets to prevent it from circumventing US and other Western sanctions.

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