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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov welcomes US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Moscow on 12 April 2017 [Image: MFA, Russia]
On Friday, the Trump administration said that the Treasury Department had slapped Moscow with more sanctions in response to what it said was “Russia’s occupation of Crimea” and the continued crisis in the Ukraine.
It also expanded a list of 21 individuals and authorities, including government officials who said were connected to ‘illicit’ activities in the Crimea.
“Those who provide goods, services, or material support to individuals and entities sanctioned by the United States for their activities in Ukraine are engaging in behavior that could expose them to US sanctions,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a press release.
The list also included an additional nine companies.
Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak responded to the new sanctions in a press statement by saying that there would be no negative impact on the would bring no harm to the Russian economy and industries, the minister said, adding that they will only increase tensions between Moscow and Washington.
Deputy Energy Minister Andrei Cherezov is one of the 21 individuals on the US Treasury Department’s list.
Previously, Russian Foreign Minister also called the sanctions “unreasonable” and said that Russia’s economy has withstood all the sanctions over the past four years
“There are no grounds for [the sanctions],” Lavrov told reporters last week.
“As for their goals, they are futile because, as their authors can see, several years of these sanctions have been unable to change Russia’s honest, open and constructive policy.”
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
