{"id":23920,"date":"2015-12-23T09:06:54","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T17:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/us-expands-sanctions-over-russias-activity-in-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2015-12-23T09:06:54","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T17:06:54","slug":"us-expands-sanctions-over-russias-activity-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/us-expands-sanctions-over-russias-activity-in-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"US expands sanctions over Russia’s activity in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2014 The Obama administration on Tuesday imposed financial restrictions on 34 additional people and entities for helping Russian and Ukrainian companies evade U.S. penalties and other infractions, prompting threats of retaliation from the Kremlin.<\/p>\n

The action helps \u201cmaintain the efficacy of existing sanctions\u201d established after Russia\u2019s annexation of the Crimean peninsula last year and support for eastern Ukrainian separatists, the Treasury Department said.<\/p>\n

Fourteen are linked to \u201cserious and sustained evasion\u201d or are subsidiaries of already sanctioned firms. The department called six separatists and two former Ukrainian government officials \u201ccomplicit\u201d in corruption or in destabilizing Ukraine. Twelve were targeted for operating from Crimea. Americans can no longer do business with those listed, and any U.S. assets they have are now frozen.<\/p>\n

John Smith, the department\u2019s acting sanctions boss, demanded that Russia adhere to a February cease-fire in Ukraine. That agreement compelled Moscow to withdraw forces and materiel from eastern Ukraine\u2019s front lines, release prisoners, allow the Western-backed government in Kiev to reassume control over its borders and provide unfettered access to international monitors.<\/p>\n

The new sanctions match those put in place by America\u2019s allies and demonstrate Washington\u2019s \u201cunwavering resolve to pressure Russia to respect the security and sovereignty of Ukraine,\u201d Smith added.<\/p>\n

Russia quickly decried the announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a continuation of the unfriendly line against Russia that runs counter to logic,\u201d Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. His government would review the U.S. decisions \u201cand then gather proposals on possible countermeasures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has been trying to find the right balance of carrots and sticks to push Russia into making a full withdrawal from eastern Ukraine, while securing its cooperation on ending Syria\u2019s civil war, enforcing this summer\u2019s Iran nuclear agreement and advancing other international priorities.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s announcement is only an incremental enhancement of U.S. pressure. It focuses on a number of individuals and firms that are one step removed from top-level tycoons such as Gennady Timchenko and Arkady Rotenberg, both close friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

Also identified are subsidiaries of Russian banks VTB and Sberbank, which are already blocked from the U.S. market, and export firm Rostec.<\/p>\n

Among the Ukrainians affected by this latest round of penalties are the self-described prime minister, foreign minister and justice minister of the \u201cLuhansk People\u2019s Republic\u201d in eastern Ukraine, and the foreign minister and representative in Russia of the sister \u201cDonetsk People\u2019s Republic.\u201d Moscow has supported both self-proclaimed authorities.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Obama administration on Tuesday imposed financial restrictions on 34 additional people and entities for helping Russian and Ukrainian companies evade U.S. penalties and other infractions, prompting threats of retaliation from the Kremlin. The action helps \u201cmaintain the efficacy of existing sanctions\u201d established after Russia\u2019s annexation of the Crimean peninsula last year and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23920"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}