Australia extends sanctions against 11 Russian banks and two oligarchs

The government of Australia announced this Friday a new battery of sanctions against 11 banks and government entities and two Russian oligarchs with commercial interests in the oceanic country, for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With these measures, which include the Russian National Investment Fund and the Ministry of Finance, the Australian Executive ensures that “Most (Russian) banking assets are now covered by our sanctions along with all entities handling Russia’s sovereign debt. Russia”.

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“Additional banks together account for about 80 percent of all bank assets in Russia,” according topoints to a statement issued by the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Canberra also added to the list of sanctioned Russian oligarchs, which already includes 41 people, including Roman Abramovic, businessmen Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg, whose businesses are linked to Australian companies, according to the official statement.

“The Australian government is deeply committed to imposing high costs on Russia. This includes listing people of economic and strategic importance to Russia who have supported and benefited from (President Vladimir) Putin’s regime.”

Deripaska is chairman of the Russian aluminum company Rusal, which has a 20 percent stake in the Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) refinery in Gladstone, eastern Australia, reports ABC.

For his part, Vekselberg has interests in a company that works with Origin Energy, one of the most important electricity companies in Australia, to fracture the Beetaloo basin, in the Northern Territory, according to the public media.

Australia, which has sent lethal and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, has already imposed sanctions against dozens of financial entities and has banned some 450 people from traveling, including President Putin and other Russian high-ranking officials and oligarchs, as well as members of the Executive and of the Armed Forces of Belarus.

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Source: Elcomercio

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