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President Biden announced Thursday sanctions against the Duma (lower house of the Russian Parliament) and against 400 figures and companies close to President Putin, among them 328 legislators and 48 Russian defense companies.
The decision was made in coordination with U.S. allies in the European Union (EU) and the G7. The White House issued the announcement before Biden participated in two summits of those groups on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I’m announcing additional sanctions on over 400 Russian elites, lawmakers, and defense companies in response to Putin’s war of choice in Ukraine. They personally gain from the Kremlin’s policies, and they should share in the pain,” Biden tweeted.
Among those sanctioned is the executive director of the largest Russian bank (Sberbank), Herman Gref, who has been an advisor to Putin “since 1990,” as well as another confidant of the Russian president, the multimillionaire Gennadi Timchenko, his wife and daughter.
The Department of the Treasury also included the Russian Duma in its list of sanctioned entities, and froze any assets under U.S. jurisdiction that may be held by 328 members of that lower house of the Russian Parliament.
The Treasury also recalled that, in February, the Duma approved a call for Putin to recognize the self-proclaimed pro-Russian republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent, even though they are part of Ukraine.
The new sanctions also affect 48 Russian state-owned enterprises that are part of Russia’s defense industrial base and that produce weapons that have been used in the Russian assault on the Ukrainian people, infrastructure and territory.
Among them are companies manufacturing helicopters, missiles, ammunition, military equipment and drones, such as the company Kronshtadt, which lose their access to the American financial system, the Treasury specified.
The measure was also imposed against 17 executives of the board of the Russian bank Sovcombank, the White House added.
The G7 and EU leaders also announced Thursday an initiative to combat evasion of the sanctions imposed on Moscow, and agreed to ask other countries outside those blocs to adopt similar restrictions to theirs, according to the White House.
