Visa restrictions and official designations for human-rights abuses have been brought against Russian and Belarusian officials and nationals by the United States for their involvement with Russia in its war on Ukraine, the U.S. State Department (DOS) announced this week.
The U.S. is taking the actions 'to promote accountability for human rights abuses and violations," the DOS reports in the April 20 announcement. More than 650 individuals face the sanctions, primarily officials in the governments of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, according to the DOS.
"President Putin’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine, conducted with the complicity of the Lukashenka regime, continues to cause needless suffering and thousands of civilian casualties," Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated in the report.
Blinken said the U.S. will continue to go after any individuals or entities who assist Russia to avoid sanctions, and “(w)e will ensure that the sanctions we have imposed in close coordination with our international partners degrade the Kremlin’s ability to project power and fund its war of aggression.”
Actions taken by the U.S. include visa restrictions on 587 Russians, primarily government officials accused of quashing dissent and suppressing independent media, and their families, the DOS reports. The visa restrictions follow the March announcement of a new policy in the Immigration and Nationality Act, according to the DOS. Another 48 Russians and 17 Belarusians also will be ineligible for visas on charges including threatening or violating the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, human-rights violations and harassment or intimidation of dissenters.
Three Russian officials, Khusein Merlovich Khutaev, Nurid Denilbekovich Salamov, and Dzhabrail Alkhazurovich Akhmatov, have been designated for ' a gross violation of human rights,' the DOS reports, as allowed by Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2022, the report states.
"The United States is committed 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," the DOS states in the report.
