SYDNEY, March 14. /TASS/. The Australian government is introducing new sanctions targeting 33 Russian businessmen and their family members, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Monday.

The sanctions list includes Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, Chairman of Bank Rossiya Dmitry Lebedev, Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov, Transneft CEO Nikolay Tokarev, Chairman of VEB.RF Igor Shuvalov and Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev.

"The sanctions announced today reinforce Australia's commitment to sanction those people who have amassed vast personal wealth and are of economic and strategic significance to Russia, including as a result of their connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin," the statement said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. After that the US, the EU, the UK and a number of other states announced that they would impose sanctions against Russian legal entities and individuals.