Wednesday’s announcement came only moments after a meeting concluded in Brussels between EU delegates, who soon after announced their own plan to wage penalties against Russia. Efforts to immediately impose broad, sectorial sanctions favored by hard-liners were rejected, however, in lieu of establishing a timetable that may allow for the EU to penalize Russia after the end of the month.<\/p>\n
![\"23.si\"](\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/23.si_.jpg\")
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On Wednesday, the European Council asked that the European Investment Bank “suspend the signature of new financing operations in the Russian Federation<\/em>.” Additionally, the Council revealed it will announce by the end of July what Russian entities and persons will be targeted by its own sanctions.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, among the individuals Washington has blacklisted are Minister for Crimean Affairs Oleg Savelyev, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma (Russian Parliament) Sergei Neverov, presidential aide Igor Shchegolev and Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) PM Aleksandr Boroday.<\/p>\n Speaking of the new restrictions being levied during a press conference from the White House on Wednesday afternoon, US Pres. Barack Obama said the latest sanctions are targeted, but “designed to have maximum impact on Russia while limited any spillover affect on American companies<\/em>” or allies.<\/p>\n “Russian leadership will see once again that its actions in Ukraine has consequences,”<\/em>\u00a0added Obama.\u00a0“We live in a complex world and at a challenging time. None of these challenges lend themselves to quick or easy solutions, but all of them require American leadership.”<\/em><\/p>\n “The US will continue to offer our strong support to Ukraine,”<\/em>\u00a0Pres. Obama insisted.<\/p>\n Blacklisted defense sector companies include “Almaz-Antey” corporation, the “Kalashnikov” concern and Instrument Design Bureau, as well as companies and NGOs such as \u201cIzhmash”,”Basalt” and Uralvagonzavod.<\/p>\n Another financial institution added to the sanction list is OAO Gazprombank, a company specializing in private banking and corporate financing services.<\/p>\n In its press release, the US Department of Treasury says that new sanctions were adopted in response to the\u00a0\u201ccontinued attempts to destabilize eastern Ukraine\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0\u201congoing occupation of Crimea.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In particular, the US aims to limit access to US capital markets by Russian banks \u2014 Gazprombank OAO and VEB \u2014 as well as energy companies OAO Novatek and Rosneft.<\/p>\n Washington explains that it has imposed sanctions against DPR and LPR because they are not recognized by Kiev, despite having achieved an overwhelming victory in self-determination votes.<\/p>\n \u201cTreasury designated the \u201cLugansk People\u2019s Republic\u201d and the \u201cDonetsk People\u2019s Republic,\u201d which have asserted governmental authority over parts of Ukraine without the authorization of the Government of Ukraine; and Aleksandr Boroday, the self-declared \u201cprime minister\u201d of the Donetsk People\u2019s Republic, for threatening the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0the press release says.<\/p>\n Feodosiya Enterprises, a key shipping facility in the Crimean peninsula, has also been blacklisted as complicit in the\u00a0\u201cmisappropriation of state assets of Ukraine\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n US says that the aim is to increase the \u201cisolation\u201d of Russian companies.<\/p>\n \u201cBy imposing sanctions on entities within the financial services and energy sectors, the Treasury has increased the cost of economic isolation for key Russian firms that value their access to medium- and long-term US sources of financing. By designating firms in the arms or related materiel sector, Treasury has cut these firms off from the US financial system and the US economy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Sergei Ryabko, the deputy foreign minister of the Russian Federation, added in a statement Wednesday that\u00a0“arrogance and cynicism – are the two words that best characterize US policy toward Russia.”<\/em><\/p>\n “No Fuss, we take it calmly, carefully,”<\/em>\u00a0Ryabkov said of the sanctions, adding that\u00a0“such actions affect Americans”<\/em>\u00a0and US interests, and will hamper\u00a0\u201cthe achievement of foreign policy and economic goals that they have set for themselves.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n This piece<\/a> was reprinted by RINF Independent News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Obama administration has widened the list of sanctions unilaterally targeting individuals as well as financial institutions and defense companies which the US believes are involved in destabilizing the situation in Ukraine. The US has moved to impose tougher sanctions against Russia over the tense situation in Ukraine. The widened set of\u00a0restrictions\u00a0have been placed on\u00a0the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-130777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}