The US Treasury has expanded anti-Russian sanctions. The company “Grand Service Express”, which is the operator of passenger rail transport to the Crimea, as well as eight individuals, were included in the updated list of those to whom they apply.
In particular, interim governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev, member of the Federation Council from Sevastopol Ekaterina Altabaeva, chairman of the city election commission of Sevastopol Sergey Danilenko, chairman of the legislative assembly of Sevastopol Vladimir Nemtsev, deputy head of the Sevastopol city commission Lidia Basova, general director "Granddaughter Alexander Grandova, Director General Alexander" Council of Ministers of the Republic of Crimea Yuri Gotsanyuk and Secretary of the Sevastopol City Election Commission Ekaterina Pyrkova.
Previously, all of them, except Alexander Ganov, were added to the EU sanctions list. According to the European Union, these persons are associated with the organization of elections in Crimea in September 2019. Following this, Canada imposed similar sanctions on six people.
Commenting on the situation, the representative of the Grand Express Service noted that sanctions will not affect the work of the company, since it operates only in the Russian market, RIA Novosti reports.
Recall that the first package of anti-Russian sanctions was introduced in March 2014, after a referendum in Crimea, following which the peninsula reunited with Russia. The US and the EU have accused the Russian side of alleged involvement in the deteriorating situation in eastern Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly emphasized that it is not a party to the Ukrainian conflict. At the same time, the Russian Federation was forced to take retaliatory retaliatory measures against Western countries.
In September 2019, the European Union extended economic sanctions against Russia. Then the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called this step a hackneyed record. In December, the EU decided to extend the anti-Russian sanctions for another six months. Explaining this decision, Brussels once again accused Moscow of not fulfilling the Minsk agreements. The head of the Federation Council committee on international affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, in response to this, said that the situation was reduced to absurdity.
Commenting on the new US sanctions, the Russian embassy said that they would not affect Moscow’s policies, and the American side was undermining the basis for mutually beneficial cooperation. The diplomatic mission noted that Washington is still trying, with the help of sanctions, to undermine the positive changes taking place on the peninsula since the moment of reunification with the Russian Federation.
Co-Chair of the Assembly of Slavic Peoples of Crimea Roman Chegrinets drew attention to the fact that the new US sanctions have the opposite effect, as they are forcing to build up their own production and introduce import substitution, which contributes to a “stress-resistant economic breakthrough”.
- AFP
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Oleg Morozov, a member of the Federation Council committee on international affairs, said in a conversation with RT that restrictive measures cannot affect the economy. The senator explained that the sanctions are the result of the launch of the railway connection on the Crimean bridge, since the US does not like the arrangement of the peninsula by Russia.
“This cannot really affect the economy, because the company, as I understand it, serves our domestic international lines and does not send its staff abroad. This is a pure policy and it has no consequences from the point of view of our economy and the personal life of these citizens. I don’t think that the head of Crimea, the head of the government of Crimea wake up every morning with a feeling of longing that they cannot go to the United States, ”he said.
In response to US sanctions, Crimea will continue to live happily and fully within the Russian Federation, said State Duma deputy from the Peninsula Ruslan Balbek.
“Probably, in the Crimea there will soon be a saying: why aren’t you on the sanctions list yet? Because the imposition of sanctions against the inhabitants of the peninsula has become for the West a kind of mania to look for something to complain about Crimean life, and then draw up a new sanctions list. Of course, companies that enter the Crimea understand that they will soon appear on the US black list, but they are not going to back down and work on the peninsula. In the same way, Crimeans, whether you are on the sanctions list or not, will not affect life on the peninsula. And to visit the USA and EU countries is not the main goal of Crimean managers and politicians, ”he said.