MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. At a plenary meeting on Friday, the Federation Council (the upper house of Russia’s parliament) approved a law on the possibility of imposing sanctions against citizens of any foreign state, not just the United States, along with stateless persons who have violated the rights of Russians or committed offenses against them

The document extends the law ‘On Sanctions for Individuals Violating Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms of the Citizens of the Russian Federation’ adopted in 2012, which imposes restrictions only on US citizens.

As Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Andrey Klishas explained, among the measures stipulated by the current legislation are the entry ban for blacklisted individuals. The federal law also provides for freezing their financial or other assets, prohibiting any business dealings with the property and investments as well as owning property or conducting business activities in Russia. In addition, the federal law stipulates that the operation of entities controlled by sanctioned individuals should be suspended and that their seats on the boards of directors and other management bodies of companies registered in the Russian Federation should be suspended as well. That was related to the US nationals placed on the list of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

"The law extends the current legislative measures to foreign nationals and stateless persons who are placed on corresponding lists by the Russian Foreign Ministry. In other words, we will no longer have any link to the United States," the lawmaker said.

The senator recalled that under the law, restrictions might be used against foreigners who have abused their state or official positions to exempt from liability those individuals who have committed crimes against Russian citizens. The measures target the foreigners who have been involved in the kidnapping or illegal imprisonment of Russian nationals, who have brought groundless and unjust verdicts against them or pursued ungrounded legal proceedings.