09:19 17.09.2015

Ukraine blacklists Russian Armed Forces commanders, DPR and LPR election observers, journalists, scholars, artists

3 min read
Ukraine blacklists Russian Armed Forces commanders, DPR and LPR election observers, journalists, scholars, artists

Ukraine has imposed personal sanctions on a number of people accused by Kyiv of involvement in "criminal activities against the country."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko issued a decree enacting an appropriate decision adopted by the country's National Security and Defense Council on September 2.

The blacklist includes 'international observers' at 'elections' in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and Crimea, artists and scholars (18 people), Russian officials, Armed Forces commanders, militiamen from the self-proclaimed Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (LPR) People's Republics, as well as the heads of Russian defense industry enterprises, defense industry authorities and companies that implement infrastructure projects in Crimea.

In particular, Ukraine's sanctions target Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, State Duma Deputy Speaker Sergei Zheleznyak, MPs Sergei Mironov, Alexei Zhuravlyov, Anatoly Bibilov, Vladimir Rodin, Vladimir Bessonov, Alexander Kulikov, Alexei Didenko, Mikhail Bryachak, Oleg Pakholkov, Nikolai Ryzhkov, Valery Tashkin and Boris Reznik, as well as State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov.

Other people on Ukraine's blacklist include Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya in Russia's North Caucasus, Krasnodar Territory Governor Alexander Tkachyov and judges of Russia's Constitutional Court.

Russia's high-ranking officials and military-political leadership are also on the list, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, Russian Black Sea Fleet Commander Alexander Vitko, Russian Armed Forces General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov, Airborne Forces Commander Vladimir Shamanov, as well as Russian children's rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov.

The Ukrainian sanctions also target Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachyov and political scientists Sergei Markov and Maxim Shevchenko.

Observers working at the elections in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and at Crimea's referendum were blacklisted as well.

Ukraine also imposed a travel ban on a number of journalists and public figures, among them Rossiya Segodnya international news agency general director Dmitry Kisilyov, correspondent of the TASS news agency's South African office Alexander Nechayev, the RIA Novosti news agency's representative in Turkey Yelena Palazhchenko, Krasnaya Zvezda media holding president Alexander Potapov, Expert magazine editor-in-chief Valery Fadeyev, Rossiyskaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Vladislav Fronin, BBC journalist Anton Chicherov and Vzglyad.Ru editor-in-chief Alexei Sharavsky.

Other people on Ukraine's blacklist include Russian Academy of Sciences member Sergei Glazyev, singer Iosif Kobzon, Russian Academy of Sciences President Vladimir Fortov and others.

The sanctions also target Ukrainian citizen Alena Berezovskaya, who heads the Ukraine.ru online publication. Berezovskaya's access to the her assets has been temporarily blocked.

In addition to that, Ukraine slapped sanctions on a number of Donbas militia representatives, who are citizens of both Ukraine and other countries. They include former and current leaders, and MPs of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, among them Igor Girkin (suspension of financial transactions), Pavel Gubarev (prevention of capital removal outside of Ukraine) and DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko (blocking of assets and prevention of capital removal outside of Ukraine). LPR leader Igor Plotnitsky will face sanctions as well.

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