TAGANROG, June 19. /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian president’s administration chief, Sergei Ivanov, said on Thursday that he was proud of being included in Australia’s sanctions list over the events in Ukraine.

“I am proud that the distant Australia has appreciated my work,” Ivanov told ITAR-TASS.

“I am not surprised because due to my main profession I was included in the lists of many countries which imposed a lifetime entrance ban on me long ago,” Ivanov explained.

“I am proud because it proves that in my time I used to work well for the Soviet Union,” the Kremlin administration chief said.

The Australian authorities on Thursday imposed sanctions against 50 Russians and Ukrainians as well as 11 companies over the crisis in Ukraine, the Australian Foreign Ministry said on its website. Alongside with Sergei Ivanov, the sanctioned officials include the speakers of both chambers of Russian parliament, Valentina Matvienko (the Federation Council) and Sergei Naryshkin (the State Duma); Vyacheslav Volodin, the Kremlin administration first deputy chief; Vice-Premiers Dmitry Rogozin and Dmitry Kozak; Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Russian State Duma Committee for International Affairs; as well as Viktor Yanukovych (Ukraine’s former president). The persons and companies included in Australia’s sanctions list will be subject to financial and visa restrictions, the Australian Foreign Ministry said.