Congressman Banks presented a new draft of US sanctions against Russia and Vladimir Putin
Jim Banks. Photo: Joshua Roberts / Reuters
Jim Banks, a Republican from the US House of Representatives, presented a new draft of sanctions against Russia. In addition to President Vladimir Putin and high-ranking Russian officials, the sanctions list includes a number of security forces, journalists, large businessmen, as well as the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline.
The draft sanctions, which the media called the “Putin Accountability Act”, was submitted for consideration on January 19, but its text has not yet been officially published.
There has already been a reaction to Congressman Banks’ initiative in Russia. Supporters of a mirror response appeared in parliament in case the bill is passed by the US Congress. Dmitry Belik, a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, believes that the best response would be to break off diplomatic relations with countries that have joined the anti-Russian sanctions.
Vyacheslav Nikonov, deputy Head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, questioned the effectiveness of sanctions. He called them destructive and said that the new package of restrictions will again erect an iron curtain between the countries.
This will divide our peoples. Do Americans really want to knock their forehead on a closed door so much later?
Vyacheslav Nikonov State Duma Deputy
Security guarantees and Donbass as a stumbling block
In addition to economic sanctions, Banks proposed in the bill to officially recognize Russia as a “sponsor of terrorism” and declare that it supports “terrorist forces” in the Donbass. The Republican opposes any negotiations involving Russia on security guarantees in Europe until Moscow restores the territorial integrity of Ukraine and returns Crimea to it.
The head of the Crimea, Sergey Aksenov, believes that the congressmen simply “gathered together” all possible options for sanctions, including the demand for the return of the Crimea.
The new project once again demonstrates how totalitarian the thinking of American politicians is and how poisoned it is by the consciousness of its own exclusivity. A very dangerous clouding of the mind
Sergey Aksenov Head of Crimea
Sanctions against journalists
In addition to high-ranking officials and security officials, Banks proposed to impose sanctions against the editor-in-chief of RT Margarita Simonyan, TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov and the general director of Channel One Konstantin Ernst.
It is noteworthy that RT DE, the German division of RT, is already actually under EU sanctions. At the end of December 2021, the channel was removed from broadcasting in Europe at the request of the German regulator MABB. The representative of the Union of Journalists of Germany, Hendrik Zerner, supported the actions of the German authorities and called RT’s activities “propaganda, not journalism.”
At a joint press conference of the Foreign Ministers of Russia and Germany Sergey Lavrov and Annalena Berbok, the representative of the Union of Journalists of Russia Timur Shafir said about the danger of politicization of the situation with the ban on the activities of RT DE in Germany and conveyed to Berbok an appeal from the SDR on the inadmissibility of harassment.
An earlier version of the sanctions list, consisting of 35 names, was approved by the Rules Committee of the House of Representatives of the US Congress on September 23, 2021. It included Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, Rosgvardiya Director Viktor Zolotov, Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
It was reported that restrictions may also be imposed on businessman Roman Abramovich, the head of Gazprom Alexey Miller and a number of other persons.
