MOSCOW, March 08, /ITAR-TASS/. The United States has sanctioned extra-judicial expropriation of property of foreign individuals and organisations over the events in Ukraine, a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, March 8, commenting on U.S. President Barack Obama’s order of March 6 on “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine.”

“From this date on, the president of the United States, acting in accordance with the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, empowered his administration to impose property and visa sanctions against individuals and entities that ‘have asserted governmental authority in the Crimean region without the authorisation of the Government of Ukraine’,” the ministry said.

By so doing, the U.S. administration has ensured itself against possible lawsuits by declaring in Section 10 of the executive order that “this order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

“The president of the United States basically authorised extra-judicial expropriation of property of foreign individuals and organisations,” the Foreign Ministry official said.

“The executive order on Ukraine is largely unprecedented. In the past the U.S. did not impose sanctions against individuals who had been peacefully defending their right to self-determination, which is enshrined in Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 and Article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. These documents allow people to freely determine their political status and ensure their development,” the official said.

“Once again, these are double standards. In July 2009, the U.S. provided the International Court with comments in connection with the situation in Kosovo. At that time, Washington said that the principle of territorial integrity does not prevent state entities from peacefully declaring their independence.” The Hague Court came to the same conclusion and upheld the unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence against Belgrade’s will. “This decision seems to be specifying the effective rules of international law,” the ministry said.

If Obama’s executive order were interpreted honestly, “the sanctions contained therein should be applied first of all to the Euro Maidan activists and the illegitimate bodies of power they appointed and their Western patrons. The destruction of the constitutional system and the threat to the territorial integrity of Ukraine are on their conscience,” the ministry said.