REUTERS

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday imposed additional sanctions in response to Russia’s continuing malign activity and destabilizing behavior by designating three individuals and nine entities under Ukraine-related authorities.

These designations include two individuals and one entity engaged in serious human rights abuses, as well as eight entities and one individual that were responsible for advancing Russian interests in Crimea. 

The Crimea-related actions reinforce the July 25 Crimea Declaration stating that the United States does not and will not recognize Russia’s purported annexation of Crimea.

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“The United States is leveraging new authorities to target Russian actors for serious human rights abuses in parts of Ukraine that the United States government has determined are forcibly occupied or otherwise controlled by the Russian government, and other reprehensible acts in furtherance of the Kremlin’s malign agenda,” said Sigal Mandelker, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “Treasury remains committed to targeting Russian-backed entities that seek to profit from Russia’s illegal annexation and occupation of Crimea.  Our sanctions are a clear reminder that efforts seeking to normalize investment and economic relationships with those operating in Crimea will not be tolerated and are subject to U.S. and EU sanctions authorities.”

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Today’s designations underscore the United States’ "steadfast partnership" with Ukraine and the European Union (EU) and their "unified opposition" to Russia’s purported annexation and occupation of Crimea and use of force to control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine. 

As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

The following designated individuals or entities have committed serious human rights abuses in the furtherance of the Russian Federation’s forcible occupation or control of territories of Ukraine, including Crimea and certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine:

  • FSB operative Andriy Volodymyrovych Sushko, who is suspected in 2017 of having unlawfully abducted a Crimean Tatar activist who objected to Russia’s occupation of Crimea, and having subsequently participated in the abuse of this individual, which included the use of electric shocks, choking, and beatings while in FSB captivity;

  • The Ministry of State Security of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Aleksandr Basov, the Deputy Minister of State Security of LPR. The Ministry of State Security of LPR has played a critical role in exercising Russia’s forcible control of certain portions of Luhansk region and has engaged in serious human rights abuses.  The Ministry of State Security employs detention practices that include threatening severe physical violence or rape against detainees who refused to cooperate.  Other practices used against detainees include mock executions, electrocution, and beatings.  In his role as LPR Deputy Minister of State Security, Aleksandr Basov, has used his position to punish or harass members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations.

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  • OFAC also designated eight entities and one individual illegally operating in Crimea:

The Mriya Resort and Spa, which is owned by Liability Company Garant-SV, an entity that is ultimately owned by Sberbank, which has been added by OFAC to the Sectoral Sanctions Identification List on September 12, 2014;

Limited Liability Company Infrastructure Projects Management Company (LLC UKIP), which has bought from the so-called government of Crimea without the consent of the Ukrainian government three Ukrainian-state owned hotel complexes located in Yalta: the AY-Petri, Dyulber, and Miskhor (the said three facilities also fall under the U.S. sanctions);

Vladimir Nikolaevich Zaritsky, who is the former Commander in Chief of the Missile Forces and Artillery of Russia and is the registered founder and owner of LLC UKIP.

KRYMTETS, AO, a private joint stock company engaged in the operation of electric power generation facilities and transmission systems in the occupied Crimea. 

Limited Liability Company Southern Project is being designated because it operates in the Crimea region of Ukraine and because it is owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, Bank Rossiya and Yuri Valentinovich Kovalchuk, persons whose property and interests in property were blocked by the U.S. in 2014.