{"id":47498,"date":"2022-04-20T16:25:55","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T23:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=47498"},"modified":"2022-04-20T16:25:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T23:25:55","slug":"promoting-accountability-for-human-rights-abuses-in-russia-and-belarus-and-taking-action-against-sanctions-evaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=47498","title":{"rendered":"Promoting Accountability for Human Rights Abuses in Russia and Belarus and Taking Action Against Sanctions Evaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>04\/20\/2022 02:57 PM EDT<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">President Putin\u2019s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine, conducted with the complicity of the Lukashenka regime, continues to cause needless suffering and thousands of civilian casualties.\u202f The world has witnessed the horrors of this war in the images from the Ukrainian towns of Bucha,\u00a0Irpin, and\u00a0Hostomel, and in Ukrainian towns and cities still occupied or under siege, such as Mariupol.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">As a result, the United States is taking further actions to promote accountability for human rights abuses and violations, to include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Action to impose visa restrictions on 587 Russian individuals pursuant to a new policy under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which was announced March 15.\u202f The policy applies to Russian government officials\u00a0involved in suppressing dissent in Russia and abroad.\u202f Today\u2019s action includes Duma members who have been involved in repressing independent media.\u202f Family members of those who fall under the policy will also be ineligible for visas.<\/li>\n<li>Designation of three Russian officials,\u00a0Khusein\u00a0Merlovich\u00a0K<wbr \/>hutaev, Nurid\u00a0Denilbekovich\u00a0Salamov, and Dzhabrail\u00a0Alkhazurovich\u00a0Akhmat<wbr \/>ov, pursuant to Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2022.\u202f\u00a0Khutaev, Salamov, and Akhmatov were publicly designated for their involvement in a gross violation of human rights perpetrated against human rights defender\u00a0Oyub\u00a0Titiev.<\/li>\n<li>Action to impose visa restrictions on 48 individuals pursuant to a policy under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act that applies to those who are believed to have taken, supported, or been actively complicit in actions that threaten or violate the sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence of Ukraine.\u202f Today\u2019s action includes ten purported \u201cauthorities\u201d of the so-called Donetsk People\u2019s Republic and Luhansk People\u2019s Republic who are further reported to have been involved in human rights abuses at prison facilities and places of unofficial detention in Russia-controlled areas of the Donbas since 2014.<\/li>\n<li>Action to impose visa restrictions on 17 individuals responsible for undermining democracy in Belarus pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 8015, including Belarusian nationals involved in the intimidation, harassment, and repression of strikers supporting the pro-democracy movement and the expulsion of students for participating in peaceful pro-democracy protests.\u202f Specific individuals include officials from state-owned factories and universities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The United States is\u00a0committed to a world in which human rights are respected, their defenders are free from repression, and those who commit human rights abuses are held accountable. \u00a0We will use every tool\u00a0to promote accountability for human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law in Ukraine. \u00a0The actions today hold to account individuals participating in Putin and Lukashenka\u2019s repression, and those who seek to enable it.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the U.S. Department of the Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating entities and individuals involved in attempting to evade sanctions imposed by the United States and its international partners on Russia.\u202f OFAC is designating Russian commercial bank\u00a0Transkapitalbank\u00a0and a global network of more than 40 individuals and entities led by U.S.-designated Russian oligarch Konstantin\u00a0Malofeyev, including organizations whose primary mission is to facilitate sanctions evasion for Russian entities. OFAC also designated companies operating in Russia\u2019s virtual currency mining industry, reportedly the\u00a0third-largest\u00a0in the world.\u202f For more information on OFAC actions, see the Treasury\u2019s press release:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lnks.gd\/l\/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDEsInVyaSI6ImJwMjpjbGljayIsImJ1bGxldGluX2lkIjoiMjAyMjA0MjAuNTY3MTkzMjEiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL2hvbWUudHJlYXN1cnkuZ292L25ld3MvcHJlc3MtcmVsZWFzZXMvankwNzMxIn0.LAPjA6kYpDVyy7rSbO2Etq7NKOEx1NbwO9ngU9zEFGA\/s\/1421353029\/br\/130091630981-l\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/lnks.gd\/l\/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDEsInVyaSI6ImJwMjpjbGljayIsImJ1bGxldGluX2lkIjoiMjAyMjA0MjAuNTY3MTkzMjEiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL2hvbWUudHJlYXN1cnkuZ292L25ld3MvcHJlc3MtcmVsZWFzZXMvankwNzMxIn0.LAPjA6kYpDVyy7rSbO2Etq7NKOEx1NbwO9ngU9zEFGA\/s\/1421353029\/br\/130091630981-l&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1650574034591000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3XUv7_u9IjsBJ1N5pB4wNs\">https:\/\/home.<wbr \/>treasury.gov\/news\/press-<wbr \/>releases\/jy0731\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pursuant to\u00a0Executive Order 14024 section 1(a)(iii)(C), the Department of State is designating 16 Bank\u00a0Otkritie\u00a0Board Members:\u202f Kseniya\u00a0Valentinovna\u00a0Yudayeva, Mikhail Yurevich Alekseev, Anatoly Mikhailovich\u00a0Karachinskiy, Vladimir Vladimirovich\u00a0Kolychev, Alexey Yurevich\u00a0Simanovskiy, Andrey Fedorovich\u00a0Golikov, Elena Borisovna Titova, Mikhail\u00a0Mikhaylovich\u00a0Zadornov, Dmitriy\u00a0Olegovich\u00a0Levin, Svetlana Petrovna Emelyanova, Tatyana\u00a0Gennadevna\u00a0Nesterenko, Irina Vladimirovna\u00a0Kremleva, Viktor Andreevich Nikolaev, Sergey\u00a0Georgievich\u00a0Rusanov, Nadia\u00a0Narimanovna\u00a0Cherkasova, and Paul Andrew Goldfinch\u00a0for being or\u00a0having\u00a0been a leader, official, senior executive officer, or member of the board of directors, or members of an entity whose property and interests in property are blocked.<\/p>\n<p>We will continue to target those who take part in or facilitate sanctions evasion for sanctioned Russian entities, as they are complicit in President Putin\u2019s brutal war.\u202f We will ensure that the sanctions we have imposed in close coordination with our international partners degrade the Kremlin\u2019s ability to project power and fund its war of aggression.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>04\/20\/2022 02:57 PM EDT Antony J.&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47499,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47498\/revisions\/47499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}