US imposes new sanctions against Russian companies
The Department of Treasury said the new measures were introduced due to the current situation in Ukraine
MOSCOW, September 12./ITAR-TASS/. The U.S. government has imposed new sanctions on Russia over the situation in Ukraine, the Department of the Treasury said on Friday.
The move will affect a leading Russian bank, strengthen current restrictive measures against Russian lending institutions and expand sanctions against Russia’s energy sector.
Targeted sanctions can also be applied to persons working in the Russian defense industry and related sectors, the ministry said.
The new sanctions list includes Sberbank, Benk of Moscow, Gazprombank, Rosselkhozbank, Vnesheconombank, and VTB. Now they cannot borrow for a period of more than 30 days.
The Treasury has also blocked the assets of five defense enterprises and banned the export of goods, services and technologies for deep-water, Arctic and shale oil production projects carried out by Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Lukoil, Surgutneftegaz, and Rosneft.
Rostec Corporation has also been affected and can now borrow for no longer than 30 days.
The ministry said all current projects with Russian companies would be terminated by September 26 and threatened to impose new sanctions if the Russian government did not take steps towards de-escalation in Ukraine.
Earlier in the day, the European Union announced a new round of sanctions against Russia.
The new sanctions reduce the term of loans to leading Russian state-run banks from 90 to 30 days and apply these restrictions to government-controlled Rosneft, Transneft, Gazprom Neft, Uralvagonzavod, Oboronprom, and the United Aircraft Corporation.
The EU also blacklisted another 24 Russian and Ukrainian officials, thus bringing their total number to 119.
The new sanctions were imposed several days after the international contact group had signed a ceasefire agreement in Minsk on September 5 and began talks on a political settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.