SYDNEY, June 29. /TASS/. Australia has extended its anti-Russian sanctions that were imposed after Crimea’s reunification with Russia in 2014, Australia’s Department of Home Affairs told TASS on Thursday.

It said that sanctions against a number of Russian nationals and entities were extended over the situation in Ukraine. Australia’s updated blacklist includes more than 50 Russian nationals, including speaker of the Federation Council (upper parliament hose) Valentina Matviyenko, chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation Andrey Klishas, member of this committee Elena Mizulina, chairman of the State Duma (lower parliament house) Committee for International Affairs Leonid Slutsky, State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, Crimea’s Head Sergey Aksyonov, and speaker of Crimea’s State Council (legislature) Vladimir Konstantinov.

Australia also extended sanctions imposed in 2017 covering Russian nationals and entities, including several banks and companies of the oil and gas, financial, and defense sectors.

The sanctions that were extended from June 22, 2023 for an indefinite period provide for restrictions on arms export, a ban on exports of goods and services meant for the use in intelligence and oil production in Russia, and limit access to capital markets in Australia for state-owned Russian banks.

Since March 2014, Australia has announced anti-Russian sanctions 25 times. Overall, Australian blacklist includes more than 1,000 Russian citizens and more than 300 entities. The country has severed any trade relations with Russia, frozen the assets of the blacklisted individuals and banned national companies to do business with blacklisted Russian companies.