US imposes full blocking sanctions on 19 more Russian 'oligarchs'

The United States is imposing full blocking sanctions on Russian "oligarchs" and other persons, including President Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov in response to Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday.

"Full blocking sanctions on an expansive new list of Russian elites and their family members who enable Putin: ... Boris Rotenberg (his wife Karina, and his sons Roman and Boris), Arkady Rotenberg (His sons Pavel and Igor and daughter Liliya), ..., Igor Shuvalov (His five companies, his wife Olga, his son Evgeny and his company and jet, and his daughter Maria and her company), ..., Dmitry Peskov, President Putin's press secretary," the White House said in a press release.

The White House said that full blocking sanctions have also been imposed on Nikolai Tokarev, Sergey Chemezov, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, and Alisher Usmanov.

"Imposing Visa Restrictions on 19 Russian Oligarchs, their 47 Family Members and Close Associates: Today the Department of State is announcing a new visa restriction policy to restrict the issuance of visas to certain Russian oligarchs, their family members, and close associates," the White House said.

The statement added said these oligarchs are known to direct, authorize, fund, significantly support, or carry out malign activities in support of Russia's destabilizing foreign policy. "In an initial action under this policy, we have taken steps to place visa restrictions on 19 oligarchs and 47 family members and close associates."

Separately in a tweet, US President Joe Biden said the United States has banned the travel of more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families, and close associates.

"In my State of the Union Address, I said the United States is going after the crimes of Russian oligarchs. Today, we're adding dozens of names to the list -- and banning travel to America by more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families, and close associates," Biden tweeted.

The US and Europe have launched a series of sanctions against Russia in response to the large scale military conflict in Ukraine.

These sanctions will prevent Moscow from accessing its hundreds of billions of dollars of reserves worldwide and cut short its state revenues from oil and natural gas.

( With inputs from ANI )

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