New EU black list may feature almost all top Russian leadership

An extended black list of Russian citizens that may be subject to visa ban and financial sanctions of the EU consists of 107 people and features almost all top politicians of Russia.

Sources in Brussels close to the matter told Kommersant that additional personal sanctions might be imposed in case of escalation of the situation in Ukraine, until the EU passes to the next stage: punitive measures of economic nature.

 Who may come under sanctions

One of the sources in Brussels close to the matter explained that there was also an additional black list of Ukrainian (mainly Crimean) officials who might come under sanctions. The source added that when EU foreign ministers were substantively reviewing the black list for the first time, several new surnames were added, mainly of people from the presidential administration of Russia. “All in all, it makes some 130 people,” the source said.

The people in the list, from which the candidates for applying punitive measures would be chosen, are divided into five groups. The first group comprises members of legislative branch. Among those who are not included in the black list as yet, but may come under sanctions, are deputies chairman of the Federation Council Alexander Torshin and Ilyas Umakhanov, all members of the Federation Council Committee for Foreign Affairs and of the Committee for Defense and Security, all the composition of State Duma council, as well as several lawmakers from different committees, including Alexei Pushkov and Vladimir Komoyedov.

The second group includes members of the executive branch: all permanent and non-permanent members of the Russian Security Council except President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov.

The fourth group includes businesspeople, but no new surnames were announced in this category.The third group comprises representatives of security agencies: high-ranking officials of the Defense Ministry (including Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, Head of Main Directorate for International Defense Cooperation Sergei Koshelev and Deputy Head of General Staff Igor Sergun) and Federal Security Service (including head of Military Counterintelligence Alexander Bezverkhniy).

The fifth group includes media and journalists. The explanation to this chapter says that “these media enterprises and journalists actively engaged in propagandistic efforts supporting the annexion of Crimea by the Russian Federation and Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine”. The EU named among such enterprises Gazprom Media, TV channels Rossiya, Russia Today, Channel One and NTV. Personified sanctions, aside from Dmitry Kiselyov, who was included in the second EU black list, are proposed versus another three journalists: Mikhail Leontyev, Irada Zeynalova and First Deputy Director General of Russian government-run news agency ITAR-TASS Mikhail Gusman.