MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that Russians who have found their names on the Western sanction lists should know they do a good job.

"This is a sure sign of your successful work in Russia," he said at a meeting with the winners of the Leaders of Russia contest. In this way Putin replied to a remark by the director of the on-line control and electronics department at Russia’s Energy Ministry Yevgeny Grabchak, one of the contest’s finalists who, while briefing the president on his work, recalled that his name was included in a sanction list.

On March 26, 2018 the US Department of Finance expanded the sanctions against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine. There are 21 Russian and Ukrainian citizens and 21 companies on the list.

The sanctions have been taken against Russia’s First Deputy Energy Minister Andrei Cherezov, director of a department at the Energy Ministry Yevgeny Grabchak, Power Machines and Tekhnopromexport, as well as 12 subsidiaries of Surgutneftegaz (the company has been under sectoral sanctions since 2014).