WASHINGTON, September 1 /TASS/. The United States has included a number of Gazprom’s sister structures and other Russian companies, including those involved in the construction of a bridge over the Kerch Strait (SGM-Most; Mostotrest; St.Petersburg-based Gidrostrojmost) in its sanctions list for Russia, the U.S Department of the Treasury said on its website on Thursday.

The U.S. government has once again expanded its list of unilateral economic sanctions imposed on Russian individuals and legal entities over the conflict in Ukraine, the department went on to say.

Seventeen new names, including Eduard Basurin, a representative of the DPR operational command, have been added to the U.S. sanctions list of Russian and Ukrainian nationals.

Sanctions have been imposed on another 19 Russian companies, including the Sovmortrans group specializing in multi-modal and intermodal transportation.

The U.S. list of sectoral sanctions has been expanded by a number of sister structures of the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, including Gazprom-Media, and regional branches of Gazprombank, which has been on the U.S. sanctions list since 2014.

AO Gazprom-Media Holdings was founded on January 21, 1998. It owns NTV, TNT, Match TV and "2x2" television channels. Dmitry Chernyshenko is Gazprom-Media’s director-general and chairman of the governing board.

Sanctions against Russia's Gazprombank filial units to change nothing

Gaxprombank's press service reported on Thursday that U.S. sanctions against Gaxprombank's filial companies did not change anything in terms of practical reality.

"All the companies (found in the U.S. Department of the Treasury's list TASS) that are part of Gazprombank Group, found themselves under the U.S. sectoral sanctions much earlier, since Gazprombank's stakes in their capitals exceeded 50%," a spokesperson for the bank said.

"Thus the expansion of sanctions announced by the DoT on Thursday doesn't change anything in the actual layout of the situation either for the bank or for the said subsidiaries," he said.