View of Sydney, Australia MOSCOW, Mar 14The Australian authorities have decided to impose sanctions against 33 Russian businessmen and their family members against the background of the Russian special operation in Ukraine. Maris Payne. The sanctions list, which is published on the Payne website, includes businessman Roman Abramovich, Chairman of the Board of PJSC Gazprom Alexey Miller, Head of Rostec Sergey Chemezov, Head of RDIF Kirill Dmitriev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rossiya Bank Dmitry Lebedev, President of PJSC » Transneft» Nikolay Tokarev and the chairman of the state corporation VEF.RF Igor Shuvalov. According to the statement, the sanctions were imposed on people who «accumulated a huge personal fortune» and are also of great strategic and economic importance for Russia. Russia launched a special military operation on Ukraine February 24th. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops. With the support of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive. But there is no question of the occupation of Ukraine, the President of Russia emphasized. In response, Western countries introduced new anti-Russian sanctions. In particular, several of the largest banks in the Russian Federation, including Sberbank and VTB, fell under them. The European Union, the USA, Canada and a number of other countries have closed the skies for Russian aircraft. A number of state-owned companies found it difficult to attract foreign capital. Sanctions have been imposed on the supply of high-tech products to Russia. Many big brands have announced they are suspending their activities or leaving Russia.
FT: EU discusses new sanctions against Roman Abramovich
