WASHINGTON, September 21. /TASS/. The House of Representatives of the US Congress adopted a bill on Tuesday, paving the way to imposing sanctions on almost 200 Russian officials, businessmen, entrepreneurs, celebrities and other individuals whom Washington suspects of corruption and human rights abuses.
According to the website of the initiative’s author, congressman Tom Malinowski, "the House of Representatives passed <…> a bill that presses the Biden administration to impose sanctions on nearly 200 Russian officials and other leading figures identified by anti-corruption activists as critical supporters" of the Russian government and the special military operation in Ukraine.
The list was drafted by the Anti-Corruption Foundation, deemed a foreign agent and an extremist organization in Russia. Some individuals mentioned in the document have already been blacklisted by the US.
"The legislation <…> requires the Biden administration to review for sanctions each remaining individual, or to explain to Congress why they cannot be sanctioned, pursuant to the provisions of the Magnitsky Human Rights Act and other authorities," reads a statement, posted on Malinowski’s website.
The document is yet to be considered by the Senate of the US Congress. If approved, it will be submitted to the US president for signing.
The list
The legislative act contains an annex with a list of Russians who are to be sanctioned, including Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, deputy head of the presidential administration Magomedsalam Magomedov, Russian presidnet’s aide Vladimir Medinsky, Central Election Commission Chair Ella Pamfilova, Accounts Chamber head Alexey Kurdin and Central Bank chief Elvira Nabiullina.
It also mentiones First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov, deputy prime ministers Viktoria Abramchenko, Tatyana Golikova and Alexander Novak, a number of ministers, as well as Russian Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev and Constitutional Court Chairman Valery Zorkin.
The document also lists Aeroflot Director General Sergey Alexandrovsky, Russian Post head Maxim Akimov, Roscosmos Director General Yury Borisov and Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev. Besides, it mentions heads of several Russian universities and the spiritual leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill.
Apart from that, it mentions entrepreneurs Roman Abramovich and Yevgeny Kaspersky, as well as businessman and designer Artemy Lebedev. The list also contains the names of Channel One Director Konstantin Ernst, RT television head Margarita Simonyan, journalist Vladimir Solovyev, news anchor Yekaterina Andreyeva.
Among Russian celebrities mentioned in the document are actors Marat Basharov, Dmitry Dyuzhev, Mikhail Porechenkov and Ivan Okhlobystin, actress Yana Poplavskaya, filmmakers Nikita Mikhalkov and Karen Shakhnazarov, conductor Valery Gergiev, singers Nikolay Baskov, Filipp Kirkorov, Oleg Gazmanov and Nikolay Rastorguev.