US introduces sanctions against Miller, Kostin, Vekselberg, Fradkov, Deripaska, Kerimov, Patrushev and Kosachev

The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has announced new sanctions on 38 Russian individuals and entities.

Washington said in a statement on the Treasury's website that the "Russian government engages in a range of malign activity around the globe."

The "black list" includes businessmen Oleg Deripaska, Suleiman Kerimov, Kirill Shamalov, Viktor Vekselberg, Vladimir Bogdanov, Igor Rotenberg and Andrei Skoch.

The sanctions also target the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller, VTB Bank President Andrey Kostin, Secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, Commander of Russian National Guard Viktor Zolotov, Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Chairman of the Council of the Federation Committee on Foreign Affairs Konstantin Kosachev, Director of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies Mikhail Fradkov, head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov, Governor of the Tula region Alexey Dyumin,  member of the board of directors of Gazprom Neft Sergey Fursenko, head of the Presidential Directorate for Social and Economic Cooperation with the CIS Member Countries Oleg Govorun, the Russian State Duma MP Vladislav Reznik, Aide to the President Evgeniy Shkolov, State Secretary - Deputy Governor of the Central Bank Alexander Torshin and Plenipotentiary Envoy to Russia’s Southern Federal District Vladimir Ustinov.

US Treasury Department said that it also sanctions Russia's Rusal, Russian Machines, Basic Element, Renova Group, Gaz Group, Kuban Agro, Gazprom Drilling, Gazprom Burenie.

The deputy dean of the Faculty of Global Economics and International Affairs of the Higher School of Economics of the National Research University, Andrei Suzdaltsev, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that since a possible circle of people was voiced in advance in the so-called Kremlin report, no serious consequences should be expected from this introduction. "Sanctions relate primarily to the issue of visas, as well as money and real estate abroad. For officials this is irrelevant because they are forbidden to have money and real estate abroad. For business people, of course, there were some problems, but I think they have already solved these issues," he said.

The problem, however, is that the US imposes sanctions against high-ranking officials. "It turns out that Moscow will have to introduce retaliatory sanctions against the White House and Congress? In my opinion, we are dealing with the fact that a group of officials engaged in only sanctions issues has been formed in Washington and they want to show that they are busy," Andrei Suzdaltsev believes.

The director of the Institute of Political Studies Sergei Markov, in turn, explained that, in fact, these sanctions is a common robbery. "This is the continuation of the war between the US deep state and the globalist coalition against Russia, Vladimir Putin, who is in favor of an independent policy," he explained.

Sergei Markov said that sanctions against officials and businessmen closer to the president could be expected in the near future,