US sanctions target Putin's inner circle

The Obama administration imposed sanctions on seven Russian officials and 17 companies linked to President Vladimir Putin's inner circle over the crisis in Ukraine.

The list includes Igor Sechin, OAO Rosneft chief executive officer, and Sergei Chemezov, director of State Corporation for Promoting Development, Manufacturing and Export of Russian Technologies High-Tech Industrial Products, also known as Rostec, and banks such as InvestCapitalBank and SMP Bank.

The sanctions, announced by the White House on Monday, are being imposed in conjunction with the European Union, which said today it is adding 15 names to its list of previously sanctioned individuals.

The US and EU say Russia hasn't lived up to an accord signed April 17 in Geneva intended to defuse the crisis in Ukraine. The US warned it's prepared to levy additional penalties to hit the broader Russian economy if Putin escalates by sending troops into Ukraine.

Inner circle
The new sanctions list includes Oleg Belavantsev, Putin's presidential envoy to Crimea; Dmitry Kozak, deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation, and Evgeniy Murov, director of Russia's Federal Protective Service and an army general.

Most of the companies on the list are tied to Gennady Timchenko and brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, who were placed on a sanctions list on March 20. They include the Volga Group, which is controlled by Timchenko, and InvestCapitalBank and SMP Bank, which are controlled by the Rotenbergs.

Also singled out for sanctions: Transoil, a Russia-based rail and freight operator that specialises in the transportation of oil and is owned or controlled by Timchenko's Volga Group.

One of the most prominent individuals on the list is Sechin, 53, who was Putin's colleague at the St. Petersburg mayor's office before rising to become the head of state-run Rosneft. Over the past decade he has built it into the world's largest publicly traded oil company by output and reserves.