The United States and Europe aimed sanctions directly at Vladmir Putin’s inner circle Monday to punish Russia’s move to annex Crimea, deepening the worst East-West rift since the Cold War.
The move came hours after the Ukrainian regime voted to join Russia in a referendum the West deems illegitimate and as Crimea embarked on the next political steps to embrace Kremlin rule.
The coordinated measures will freeze assets of key Russian presidential aides and lawmakers and target Crimean “separatist” leaders and ousted former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovcych.
US officials said the moves were intended to strike at “cronies” around Russia’s President Putin, and to impose a heavy cost for the Crimean referendum and the arrival of Kremlin forces.
“These are clearly people who are very close to President Putin, “ said one US official on condition of anonymity.
Another senior American official added: “These are by far the most comprehensive sanctions applied to Russia since the end of the Cold War, far and away.”
European Union Foreign Ministers on Monday unveiled travel bans and asset freezes against 13 Russian officials and eight Ukrainian officials from Crimea.
It did not identify those targeted, but US officials said the EU list would be announced publicly on Tuesday and contained some overlap with its own measures.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius tweeted that there would be “more EU measures in (a) few days.”
President Barack Obama, who spoke to Putin on Sunday, unveiled a new executive order, naming seven key Russian officials and four more from Ukraine and Crimea.
Those targeted will see any assets and interests in the United States or under US jurisdiction blocked.
They will not be allowed to do business with Americans and will find it difficult to make financial transactions using dollars.
The high profile list of Putin acolytes includes Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin who has branded US support for interim anti-Moscow Ukrainian leaders as a “circus.”
The US and EU moves came a day after Crimea voted in a referendum, which US officials described as deeply flawed and marked by irregularities, for Kremlin rule.
Most of the international community rejected the referendum as illegal because Russia had vowed to respect its neighbor’s territorial integrity under a 1994 agreement that saw Ukraine renounce its Soviet-era nuclear arms.
Ukraine’s interim president Oleksandr Turchynov denounced the vote as a “great farce” and watched from a podium as agitated lawmakers approved a partial mobilization of the army aimed at countering Russian troops’ effective seizure of Crimea that the beginning of March.
In Washington, senior officials said the list of those sanctioned also included Vladislav Surkov and Sergei Glazyev, key aides to Putin and Duma members Leonid Slutsky, Yelena Mizulina.
Federation Council members Andrei Klishas and Valentina Matviyenko are also targeted.
The officials targeted in Crimea include Sergei Aksyonov, who has named himself the interim prime minister of the territory and Vladimir Konstantinov, the speaker of the Crimean parliament.
Any assets of Yanukovych and Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of the pro-Russia “Ukrainian Choice” faction, in the United States will also be seized, the White House said.