SYDNEY, March 8. /TASS/. Australia announced new sanctions on Russia that will affect the Russian armed forces and 16 more Russian citizens, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement on Tuesday.
"This new round of sanctions will impose targeted financial sanctions on the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, and targeted financial sanctions and travel bans against an additional six senior Russian military commanders responsible for implementing naval, ground and air attacks on Ukraine," the statement said.
The statement also said Australia also was imposing sanctions on "10 people of strategic interest to Russia."
"The Australian Government continues to work with digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google to take action to suspend the dissemination of content generated by Russian state media," according to the statement.
It was earlier reported that Australia joined the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the EU, the UK, Canada and the US. To date, the Australian sanctions package, in addition to restrictions on Russia’s senior officials State Duma deputies, includes freezing the international reserves of the Russian central bank, restrictions on the issuance of visas and passports to Russians associated with the government, and the disconnection of some Russian banks from the SWIFT global payment system. Prior to this, Australia banned the country's financial organizations from conducting any transactions with Russian financial organizations, defense sector enterprises and some state and government institutions.
On February 24 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 denazify the country. Afterward, the US, EU, UK and some other countries said they were imposing sanctions on Russian individuals and legal entities.