MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. John Mark Dougan, former US marine and police officer, who is the first American on the EU’s sanctions list, believes that his efforts to expose corruption in Ukraine are the reason behind the restrictions.

"I had come to Russia for political asylum because I was exposing corruption in the United States. Now, I was just put on the EU’s sanctions list - sanctioning me for exposing corruption in Ukraine," Dougan, who holds the Medal of the Order of Service to the Fatherland (second degree), said in an interview with TASS.

According to him, "this is not just some minor corruption; this is billions of US dollars in stolen taxpayer money from citizens of the United States and Europe." Dougan also said that the US had revoked his passport and he now considered himself only a Russian citizen.

"The European leaders - they can’t tolerate this [anti-corruption investigations]. It undermines everything they have been working for. And what have they been working for? Their goal is to keep Ukraine in war so they can steal billions of dollars," Dougan pointed out.

The EU added Dougan to its Russia-related sanctions list on December 15, accusing him of "participating in pro-Kremlin digital information operations."