There are 946 names of Russian and Ukrainian citizens who ceased to be so, and also of entities that manage, which today make up the list of those punished by the European Union with a asset freeze,
The affiliations that four edicts of the European Council have been adding since, in March 2014, the governments of the Union decided not to let the annexation of Crimea by Russia go unpunished, that “special military operation & rdquor; from Vladimir Putin that prolonged the current invasion of Ukraine.
But of that list, only a portion are “oligarchs & rdquor; Russians. Ninety-six identifies another list, that of those sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury as of 2018.
Not all the names pointed out by the United States appear among those that are penalized on this side of the Atlantic. It is the case of the tanker Vagit Alekperovpresident of Lukoil, or the aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaskaowner of the electric company EN+, noted on the American shore, but not (yet) in the Union.
The European list includes the 450 members of the Russian Duma (parliament). The original American list brings together fewer people, 327: the 96 oligarchs, 114 politicians, 74 ministers and regional councilors and 43 Kremlin officials; and not only related to the aggression against Ukraine: also with the promotion of the war in Syria.
Whether they are in one or another list, they all have something in common: it weighs on them the western accusation of having promoted or supported the war in Ukraine and to support the regime of Vladimir Putin.
The FSD File and the S241 Report
The inclusion of the Russian president is, by the way, recent, as much as that of the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrovand those of the military chiefs Valery Gerasimov (General Staff) and Sergei Shoigu (Minister of Defense): from February 28 in these cases. His names appear in the two large files from which, perhaps one day, an international court will draw affiliations.
The North American, elaborated with data from the foreign and financial intelligence of the Department of State, originated in the Section 241 Report submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury with the “America’s adversaries” in January 2018, and is currently on what American bureaucrats call the SDN List. It stands for Specially Designed Nationals.
The European list is kept in a long computer file -40 seconds of computer scrolling is not enough for all the names to scroll-: the FSD (Financial Sanctions Database).
Eleven days of hybrid warfare in Crimea, between March 6 and 17, 2014, finally decided the EU to create the file. The celebration of a kind of self-determination referendum promoted by Russia between the pro-Russian Crimeans and the newly conquered Ukrainians spurred on the EU: “The Heads of State or Government considered that the decision of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to hold a referendum on the future status of the territory is contrary to the Constitution of Ukraine and, therefore, illegal & rdquor ;, says the preamble to the sanctions.
also journalists
After the condemnation of that unconstitutional referendum, the list began to fill up. And not just politicians or businessmen. Characters like Tigran Keosayan, journalist and film director “who has spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda in the Russian media & rdquor ;, says the edict that put him on the list on February 28. His television program “financed by the State & rdquor; ‘Sawmill with Tigran’ is considered a instrument of “destabilization, undermining and threatening the security of Ukraine”.
It is also the case of the journalist Olga Skabeyeba, from public television Rossiya 1. “Together with her husband Yevgeny Popovpresents the most popular political talk show in Russia’60 minutes’, in which he spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda (…) in a biased way (…) reducing Ukraine to the role of ‘anti-Russia’”, says his European file.
Tacitly, the European accusations attribute to these stars of Russian communication a role of tool of Putin and his regime, as the United States sees it in the oligarchs and their companies.
The former are considered as such. if your fortune exceeds 1,000 million dollars. The latter, if they are participated in or dominated by the Kremlin, are called “parastatal entities”.
“Russian parastatals – says a Treasury report submitted to the US Congress in 2018 to inform the S241 Report – have origins in the command economy of the Soviet Union & rdquor ;. The industrial giants that were privatized have been partially renationalized by purchase, decree or public-private collaboration agreements. today add up “a third of all jobs in Russia and 70% of its gross domestic product & rdquor ;.
Two Spanish ministries involved
Europe, in its regulations for the execution of sanctions, defines its Russian targets as “individuals responsible for actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine & rdquor ;. Regarding their assets, the Official Gazette of the EU already established in March 2014: “All funds and economic resources whose property, possession or control corresponds to natural or legal persons listed in the annex will be immobilized…”
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This order is law for the states of the Union. In Spain, two departments have to punish the Russians of the file: the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism and the General Subdirectorate of Inspection and Control of Capital Movement, dependent on the Ministry of Economy.
Under this surveillance is considered, for example, the first Russian who entered the list, on March 17, 2014. It is called Sergei Valerievich Askionov and is 49 years old. On February 27 of that year “he was elected ‘Prime Minister of Crimea’ & rdquor ;, recounts his indictment file, in a session of the regional parliament that was at least irregular: the vote was made in the presence of armed men pro-Russian & rdquor ;.