The U.S. blacklist against Russian officials, proxies and businesses involved in the war against Ukraine expanded on Dec. 22, with 34 new individuals and several companies added to the list, including against entities that have helped Russian firms evade sanctions.
The EU, meanwhile, rolled over its sanctions another six months on Dec.
21.
While U.S. officials explained the move as simply synchronizing up the
U.S. list with that of the European Union, experts saw a stern message to
Russia: that Moscow is not going to be able to evade sanctions as long as it
controls Crimea and wages war against Ukraine.
According to Nomura International
analyst Timothy Ash, the West is separating issues involving Ukraine from
whatever role the Kremlin is playing in helping fight terrorism in Syria or
resolving other international conflicts.
“This ‘tightening’ of the
sanctions regime is in effect nuancing what is in place to ensure that where
gaps have appeared and efforts may be being made to get around the existing
regime we will close any loopholes,” Ash said in an e-mailed statement.
Sanction evaders
The U.S. Treasury Department’s
explanatory note said it was part of a “continued effort to counter attempts to
circumvent” sanctions.
The new list targets cronies of
Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding new individuals and entities that had
reportedly been helping Gennady Timchenko and Arkady Rotenberg evade sanctions.
The two businessmen are part of
Putin’s inner circle and were shielded from the sanctions in 2014 by the
Kremlin. Both of their companies were awarded 12 percent more in government
contracts last year, apparently a move designed to compensate for the Western
sanctions against them.
Seven entities and one individual
tied to Timchenko have now found themselves under sanctions, as have three
companies tied to Rotenberg.
While the Kremlin has shrugged off the sanctions as “a continuation of
this unfriendly stance towards Russia” and Kremlin officials said they would
have little to no impact on Russia’s economy, experts called their bluff,
noting that Russian lobbying efforts within the EU to lift the sanctions prove
otherwise.
“The sanctions are designed to have a long-term effect, not a short-term
effect. That being said, since the sanctions have been imposed, the Russian
economy is in a tailspin, the price of oil has plummeted, and official
statistics are one thing but the reality is the economic growth in Russia has
come to an end,” American political analyst Brian Mefford told the Kyiv Post.
“The Europeans do feel the
economic impact much more than the U.S.,” Mefford said, adding that “there is a
move internally (in the EU) and due to Russian lobbying to get these sanctions
lifted, and they’re targeted at the traditional friends of Russia in the EU – Italy,
the Germans, although the Germans have been surprisingly consistent so far … That was why Italy was the one member publicly
saying ‘these sanctions are not going to be automatically renewed.’”
Mefford said that sanctions “are not going to be there forever, but
they are at least in place for another six months.”
Tom Coupe, a professor at the Kyiv School of
Economics, said sanctions are having a limited impact, noting a September study
by Citibank that found sanctions have had a “negligible effect on Russian gross
domestic product.” He also said sanctions “tend to be not very successful in changing policies, except if the
sanctions are really harsh and strictly implemented.”
Yanukovych allies, separatist
leaders
Four names appeared on the list that many would argue were long overdue.
Andrei Rodkin, a Moscow representative for the Russian-occupied
territories of Donetsk Oblast, was added for “threatening the peace, stability
and sovereignty” of Ukraine, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Also added to the list was Vitaly Zakharchenko, former interior minister
under ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, and wanted for murder over the
killings of protesters during the EuroMaidan Revolution in February 2014.
Appointed to the position in 2011 by Yanukovych, he reportedly fled along with
Yanukovych from Crimea by military boat, ending up in Moscow on Feb. 25, 2014.
There, he got Russian citizenship and a job with Russia’s Rostec state
corporation.
Sergey Tsyplakov, who heads a people’s militia in Donbas and is a
current leader of Russian-separatist forces in Luhansk, was included for
actively taking over government buildings in Donetsk Oblast during the
simulated “uprisings” in 2014 that ushered in Russian control over occupied
areas.
Dmytro Tabachnyk, the former education and science minister under
Yanukovych, was included for allegedly embezzling and misappropriating state
funds.
U.S. officials did not explain why they had only now added these names.
Most of the Russian-backed separatist leaders added to the list followed
the Kremlin’s official line and reacted with irony or mocked the U.S. for the
move – a sign that experts say shows the sanctions are taking their toll.
Separatist leader Rodkin boasted on his Facebook page of already “being
on the EU list for a year, despite having a three-year Schengen visa issued in
the spring of 2014.”
Aleksander
Kofman, the self-proclaimed “foreign minister” of Donetsk separatist
leadership, described the blacklist as “joyful” in comments on his Facebook
page, saying “VTB, Sberbank and Yandex-Money can all now bravely open up in
Crimea and Donetsk.”
According
to Mefford, this is an indication that the sanctions are having an impact.
“The tough talk is for domestic consumption on the Russian side. … When
the Russians say ‘Oh these sanctions don’t affect us, we don’t have houses
abroad and blah blah blah,’ that’s for their domestic audience,” he said.
