Australia sanctions more Russian officials, entrepreneurs

Australia has imposed sanctions on Children’s Rights Commissioner for the Russian President Maria Lvova-Belova and three Russian ministers, as well as on another 12 Russian nationals, according to a letter released by the Australian Department of Home Affairs on Friday.

The document says that autonomous sanctions are being imposed on Russian Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev, Transport Minister Vitaly Saveliev, and Minister for Construction, Housing and Utilities Irek Faizullin.

President of the Gazfond non-governmental pension fund Yury Shamalov, entrepreneur Alexander Plekhov, member of the Board of Directors at Sogaz Mikhail Klishin, Chairman of the Board of the Rosgeologia company Sergey Gorkov, co-founder of the Kievskaya Ploshchad company God Nisanov, former President of the AFK Sistema company Yevgeny Novitsky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ESN Group Grigory Berezkin and President of Mercury Group Igor Kesaev have also been blacklisted.

In addition, the restrictions target entrepreneur Igor Putin, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Sogaz Insurance Mikhail Putin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the MRT Group of Companies Roman Putin and Chair of the Board of the National Media Group Alina Kabaeva.

Australia has already introduced sanctions against 828 Russian and Belarusian nationals over Ukraine, including the two countries’ presidents, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, as well as against 47 major Russian companies and organizations. Besides, the country has banned the export of weapons, commodities and oil and gas extraction equipment to Russia, as well as the import of Russian energy, weapons and ammunition.