MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. Russia does not plan to publish the blacklists of individuals and organizations in the West, whom Moscow has imposed sanctions on to retaliate the earlier sanctions, which the US, the EU and a number of other countries had imposed on individuals and organizations in Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov said in an interview with TASS on Thursday.
"We’re a democratic country and any democratic system has an important element, namely, protection of personal data," Meshkov said. "That’s why we think it’s much more appropriate to keep these lists confidential unlike those who publish data on the blacklisted people worldwide do."
"But we have these lists and they’re quite comparable with the Western ones," he said.
EU blacklist
The blacklisted persons are banned the entry to the European Union. Their bank accounts with EU banks are subject to freezing. European businesses are banned to maintain any contacts and provide any financing to blacklisted companies.
The latest update of the European Union’s blacklist for Russia and Ukraine took place on November 29, 2014. As of today, the list has 132 names. In January, the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council passed a decision to prolong it till September 2015. The European Union is currently looking at supplementing the blacklist of Russian and Ukrainian citizens with about 15 more names.
Along with the blacklist, the European Union on July 31, 2014 imposed sectoral economic sanctions on Russia that were extended on September 12.
Under these sectoral sanctions, five Russian banks, namely Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, Vnesheconombank and Rosselkhozbank, were denied access to European loans. These sanctions however are not applicable to subsidiaries of the five Russian banks registered in the European Union.
The second element of the sectoral sanctions is a ban on supplies of weapons and double use devices, primarily electronic, to Russia.
And yet another element is a ban on sales of new technologies and high technology equipment for Russia’s oil sector, in particular equipment and technologies for shelf drilling and oil production, for production of shale oil and polar drilling. Experts however say in conditions of falling oil process this block of sections is no longer effective.
Along with these sanctions, the European Union has imposed numerous bans on imports of commodity from Crimea and Sevastopol, transport and visa restrictions in respect of Crimean and Sevastopol residents as part of the so-called EU strategy of the non-recognition of Crimea’s joining the Russian Federation.