On Monday, the Prime Minister issued a statement expanding sanctions on Russia in response to its interference in Ukraine. The statement is unequivocal in its explanation:
The Government is deeply concerned by escalating events in Ukraine.
Russia has been engaged in a campaign to destabilise Ukraine for months. As a consequence, 38 people who called Australia home were brutally murdered, along with many others, when Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down from territory controlled by Russian-backed rebels with a Russian-supplied missile.
The situation has recently worsened as Russia steps up its persistent and deliberate violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty. Around 1000 heavily armed Russian troops are now operating openly in eastern Ukraine, in defiance of Ukraine’s sovereignty, the international community and international law.
As Russia refuses to heed the international community’s call to de-escalate the crisis and instead is further fuelling it, the Government will expand Australia’s autonomous sanctions and travel bans relating to Russia.
The expanded sanctions include:
- restrictions on arms exports;
- restrictions on the access of Russian state-owned banks to Australian capital markets;
- preventing the export of goods and services for use in Russia’s oil exploration or production;
- restrictions on Australian trade and investment in Crimea; and
- targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on an additional 63 Russian and Ukrainian individuals and 21 entities (taking the total number of financial sanctions and travel bans to 113 individuals and 32 entities).
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Posted with BlogsyFiled under: DFAT Updates, Sanctions Programs, Ukraine sanctions
