KIEV, April 2. /TASS/. Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council has imposed sanctions on Kiev’s office of the Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation, which entails a ban on its operation, the Ukrainskaya Pravda (Ukrainian Truth) online newspaper said on Friday citing a source in the council.
"Eleven Russian companies are subject to sanctions, including Rossotrudnichestvo (acronym for the Russian federal agency - TASS)," it said.
Apart from that, the newspaper reported that sanctions would target 57 more companies with links to Ukrainian nationals, who "are among top ten Ukrainian smugglers," according to President Vladimir Zelensky.
Earlier, Ukrainian Culture Minister Alexander Tkachenko called on the National Security and Defense Council to consider the expediency of the Russian humanitarian cooperation’s office in the country.
He claimed that "Rossotrudnichestvo’s office in Ukraine and its Kiev-based Russian Science and Culture Center are involved in circulating Russian narratives and propaganda all over the world under the guise of cultural and scientific cooperation."
In particular, the minister was outraged by the March 9 post on Rossotrudnichestvo’s Facebook account announcing an event entitled ‘International Contest of Contemporary Poets. Shevchenko Day,’ which referred to Taras Shevchenko as "a Russian-Ukrainian poet."
Ostentatious gesture
According to Leonid Kalashnikov, Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, the operation of the Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation has been already restricted in Ukraine, so the sanctions against its office are an ostentatious and political gesture.
"This step is ostentatious and political, since in fact Rossotrudnichestvo (acronym for the Russian federal agency - TASS) with its centers, which were to operate, are not functioning there," the lawmaker said.
Kalashnikov explained that "it is certainly not about dancing in kokoshniks at the Russian Cultural Center, but the fact that Rossotrudnichestvo means first and foremost the Russian language, its development, and some humanitarian programs which, regrettably, are not possible today."
According to the lawmaker, the sanctions were "more a formal and political step" aimed to demonstrate that Rossotrudnichestvo’s programs are considered by the current Ukrainian authorities as unnecessary and irrelevant.
Earlier in the day, the Ukrainskaya Pravda (Ukrainian Truth) online newspaper said citing a source in the council that Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council had imposed sanctions on Kiev’s office of the Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation, which entails a ban on its operation. Ten more Russian companies were also sanctioned.
The Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad set up its office in Ukraine in 2007. It operates under the agreement on information and cultural centers approved by the Ukrainian and Russian governments. In accordance with this agreement, Ukraine’s National Cultural Center functions in Moscow.
Among the priorities of the Rossotrudnichestvo branch are bilateral humanitarian ties. It draws up and implements the projects and programs to support the Russian language and promote Russian culture and educational services, provides help to compatriots’ communities and to veteran organizations.