WASHINGTON, December 9. /TASS/. The US has sanctioned the Russian Central Election Commission and its 15 members including chairwoman Ella Pamfilova, according to a US Treasury statement on Friday.
The designations have been made because, "In September 2022, Russia’s CEC helped oversee and monitor sham referendums held in areas of Russia-controlled Ukraine that were rife with incidents of clear voter coercion and intimidation," according to the statement.
According to the US, "For years, Russia’s CEC has touted as clean and transparent elections in Russia that have been riddled with irregularities and credible accusations that the Kremlin has carefully managed the results."
The Treasury said Pamfilova and CEC member Nikolay Levichev had previously been sanctioned by Canada, the European Union, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. CEC Deputy Chairman Nikolay Bulaev has previously been sanctioned by the EU, Switzerland, and the UK, the US agency said.
Sanctions were also levied on presidential administration officials Oleg Nesterov and Yevgeny Kim, who, according to Washington, allegedly "were directly involved in the planning for and implementation of filtration points" in Ukraine.
The Treasury also sanctioned Alexey Muratov, a deputy secretary of a United Russia party office and the head of the central executive committee of the civil group called the Donetsk Republic; and Marina Sereda, a Russian national, for helping to "manage filtration points" in the Donetsk People’s Republic. The Treasury said Muratov was previously designated in June of 2017 as part of other Ukraine-related sanctions.
Friday’s designations of Kim, Nesterov, Muratov and Sereda were "for being responsible for or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in, activities that undermine the peace, security, political stability, or territorial integrity of the United States, its allies, or its partners, for or on behalf of, or for the benefit of, directly or indirectly, the government of the Russian Federation."
The Treasury hasn’t listed any evidence for its assertions.
"The US State Department also sanctioned Russian Federation nationals Ochur-Suge Terimovich Mongush and Lyudmila Nikolayevna Zaitseva, both of whom were reportedly implicated in human rights abuses against civilians in Ukraine," according to the statement from the Treasury.
Russian decisions and response by the West
On February 24 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aims to demilitarize and de-Nazify the country. The West retaliated to the Russian decision by imposing sweeping sanctions on the country. Also, Western countries started shipments of weapons to Kiev, which by now are worth billions of dollars. Some Western politicians have described the situation as an economic war on Russia. Putin said on March 16 that Western sanctions bear the signs of an aggression and the West pursues a long-term policy of containing Russia.
The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republic, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions in late September held referendums on the accession to Russia. The overwhelming majority of voters were in favor of such a step. Following the referendums, Russian President Vladimir Putin and heads of these regions signed treaties on their accession to Russia. On October 4, Putin signed laws on the ratification of these treaties.