107 Russian citizens may fall under EU sanctions on broader list

MOSCOW, April 9 (Itar-Tass) - A broader list of Russian citizens who may fall under visa and financial sanctions imposed by the European Union includes 107 people and nearly the whole top political leadership of the country. Additional personal sanctions may be imposed in case of escalation of current crisis in Ukraine up to EU’s transfer to a next stage of economic punitive measures, informed sources in Brussels told Kommersant daily. One more additional list of Ukrainian officials, mainly Russian Crimean officials, against whom sanctions may be introduced, exists, an informed source in Brussels added. Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of the EU states have put on the sanction list several more officials, primarily from the Russian presidential staff, already at first detailed talks on the main sanction list, the source said. “In general, the list includes around 130 people,” he added. Russian citizens on the sanction list from which candidates for punishment will be selected are divided in five groups. The first group comprises members of legislative authorities. Deputy Speakers of the Federation Council upper house of parliament Alexander Torshin and Ilyas Umakhanov, all members of the Federation Council committee for international affairs and the upper house’s committee for defence and security, the whole staff of the Council of the State Duma lower house of parliament, several lawmakers from different parliamentary committees, including Aleksey Pushkov and Vladimir Komoedov are not put on the EU blacklists already in effect. The second group are officials of Russian executive authorities. This group includes all permanent and non-permanent members of the Russian Security Council, except for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The third group comprises law enforcers. This group consists of high-ranking officials of the Russian Defence Ministry [including Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov, chief of the main department of international military co-operation Sergey Koshelev and Deputy Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff Igor Sergun] and the Federal Security Service [including head of Russian Military Counterintelligence Directorate Alexander Bezverkhniy]. The fourth group includes business people. No one is in this category. The fifth group are media organisations and journalists. These media organisations and journalists participated actively in propagandistic efforts in support of Crimea’s annexation by Russia and Russian military intervention in Ukraine, the explanatory note to this section of the EU sanction list claimed. The EU lists Gazprom Media, TV channels Rossiya, Russia Today, Channel One and NTV among these structures. Apart from Dmitry Kiselev [he was put on the second EU blacklist] personal sanctions may be imposed on three more journalists: Mikhail Leontyev, Irada Zeinalova and First Deputy Director General of Russian government-run news agency ITAR-TASS Mikhail Gusman. Learn more on itar-tass.com