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(CNN)The Trump administration is unleashing additional sanctions against seven Russian oligarchs with ties to President Vladimir Putin along with 12 companies they own or control.
The measures announced by the Treasury Department on Friday were also aimed at 17 senior Russian government officials and the state-owned Russian weapons trading company, Rosoboronexport, which has long-standing ties to Syria and its subsidiary, Russian Financial Corporation Bank.
The punitive actions are the latest escalating step by the US to punish Putin's inner circle for interfering in the 2016 election and other ongoing aggressions across the globe in Crimea, Ukraine and Syria.
"Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government's destabilizing activities," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement, citing Russia's occupation in Crimea and its ongoing efforts to supply the Assad regime in Syria with materials and weapons.
A senior administration official told reporters in a briefing the sanctions had been under review for some time but were not imposed solely in response to a single event. Rather they were "in response to the totality of the Russian government's ongoing and increasingly brazen pattern of malign activity around the world."
Friday's sanctions list targets a number of Russian tycoons, including Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire who once had close ties to President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort; Kirill Shamalov, an energy executive who married Putin's daughter; and Suleiman Kerimov, who allegedly brought millions of euros into France in suitcases.
I guess Trump realizes his supporters wouldn't care if a golden shower tape comes out. Maybe we've turned the corner.
This post was edited by IceMage on Apr 6 2018 08:46am