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US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has announced new US visa sanctions against Russian and Belarussian military personnel believed to have operated in Bucha – a town on the outskirts of Ukrainian capital Kyiv where Russian officers are accused of executing residents, according to a recent Reuters report.
Announcing the new policy of US visa restrictions targeting Russian and pro-Russian forces in Ukraine, the State Department said that it has imposed bans on 2,596 members of the Russian military and a further 13 Belarussian military officials. The US visa bans will apply to each individual and their family members.
Back in February, the Biden administration hit Belarus with US visa restrictions, accusing the pro-Russian nation of ‘repressing athletes abroad’, including the attempted forced repatriation of a sprinter at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Bucha horrors
In an official statement, Blinken said: “Included among this group are personnel who reportedly took part in Russian military activities in Bucha, the horrors of which have shocked the world.”
Ukrainian officials claim that they found hundreds of civilians in Bucha dead after Russian forces left the town. However, Russian officials have denied the claims and said that the killings had been faked.
The latest US visa restrictions imposed on Russians and Belarussians comes after US President Joe Biden, and a group of seven other world leaders, recently met virtually with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and pledged to ‘further isolate Russia and its economy’.
Maritime vessels
In addition to US visa sanctions targeting members of Russian forces, the State Department has also blacklisted eight Russian maritime-related companies and 69 vessels, which now appear on a US Treasury Department sanctions list that blocks them from doing business in the United States or with American citizens.
The companies targeted by the State Department include the Russian Ministry of Defense’s shipping company and Fertoing, a specialist machine engineering firm that manufactures remotely operated subsea equipment. Blinken said: “They will be blocked from accessing US technologies.”
The latest sanctions have reportedly been imposed to close loopholes in existing sanctions and also brings US restrictions against Russians in line with the UK, which announced similar sanctions recently.
Accountancy and consultancy services
The US and the UK each provide a large chunk of services to Russian corporations, including accountancy and management consultancy. The Biden administration views US service providers as potential tools that Russia could use to avoid the punitive measures already imposed.
A senior Biden administration official said: “They’ve been asked by Russian companies to help them figure out how to reformulate their business strategies in the wake of sanctions, in some cases how to get around these sanctions, or in the case of accountants how to hide some of their wealth, and we’re shutting that down.”
It’s understood that the new US visa sanctions against Russians will hit eight executives from Sberbank – Russia’s largest financial institution - and a further 27 from Gazprombank, owned by Russia’s giant gas industry. Until now, Gazprombank had avoided sanctions because of its role in facilitating European purchases of Russian natural gas.
The senior administration official said: “This is not a full block. We’re not freezing the assets of Gazprombank or prohibiting any transaction with Gazprombank. What we’re signaling is that Gazprombank is not a safe haven, so we’re sanctioning some of their top business executives, people who sit at the top of the organization, to create a chilling effect.”
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