The White House on March 6 announced visa restrictions on Russian and Crimean officials responsible for “threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that the new
sanctions strengthen the U.S. policy of denying visas “to those involved in human
rights abuses related to political oppression in Ukraine.”
U.S. President Barack Obama also signed an executive order that “authorizes sanctions on individuals
and entities responsible for activities undermining democratic processes or
institutions in Ukraine; threatening the peace, security, stability,
sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine; contributing to the
misappropriation of state assets of Ukraine; or purporting to assert
governmental authority over any part of Ukraine without authorization from the
Ukrainian government in Kyiv.”
The White
House statement said that the new sanctions “build upon the previous actions
the United States has taken” to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Obama’s executive order targeted the officials associated with the Russian invasion of Crimea: “All property and interests in property” belonging to those who have undermined democratic institutions in Ukraine, misappropriated the economic assets of the country, or threatening the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine “are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt.” But the order did not publicly specify the names of those targeted, unlike similar action the European Union and individual nations in Europe.
The
U.S. has suspended talks with the Russian government on trade and investment, suspended
its preparations for the meeting of the Group of 8 countries in Sochi in
June and halted U.S.-Russia military cooperation.
Obama reiterated that the U.S. was working to deescalate tensions in
Crimea, with the goal of reestablishing Ukrainian sovereignty.
The White House
statement called for the immediate “deployment of international observers and
human rights monitors who can assure that the rights of all Ukrainians are
protected, including ethnic Russians, and who can support the Ukrainian
government’s efforts to hold a free and fair election on May 25.”
Obama
called on Russia to “take the opportunity before it to resolve this crisis
through direct and immediate dialogue with the Government of Ukraine,” by
removing its troops from Crimea.
The
sanctions come in the wake of the State Department decision last month to
revoke the visas of unnamed members of the Ukrainian government who were
associated with a bloody crackdown in Kyiv that left 100 people killed since the start of the EuroMaidan Revolution on Nov. 21 that succeeded in toppling Viktor Yanukovych as president on Feb. 22.
Kyiv Post staff writer Isaac Webb can be reached at [email protected]
