With the list of sanctions against Vladimir Putin, Russian oligarchs, and the countries of Russia and Belarus for their actions in invading Ukraine growing by the day, I feel it’s high time we have an omnibus thread just to list some of the sanctions.
These sanctions can come in many different forms.
Type 1: A sanction against Russia, Belarus, or the general Russian or Belarussian population.
Type 2: A sanction against Vladimir Putin specifically.
Type 3: A sanction against the Russian oligarchs.
I’ll start with a Type 1:
WWE, formerly known as World Wrestling Entertainment, has shut down WWE Network in Russia, and there is currently no way to watch any WWE programming in the country, be it their weekly shows, their tape library, or their monthly WWE Network-exclusive events.
(Apparently, Netflix was required to host 20 Russian propaganda channels as a prerequisite for operating in the country. We Are Not the Same.)
Type 2:
World Taekwondo has stripped Vladimir Putin of the honorary 9th-degree black belt he received for enhancing the reputation of taekwondo in Russia. (If I recall correctly from reading another article on this same story, even Chuck Norris only has an 8th-degree black belt, and World Taekwondo also gave a 9th-degree black belt to Donald Trump. They sure do like to give these things out to dictators and wannabe dictators).
Type 3:
France seized a $120 million superyacht owned by Russian oligarch Igor Sechin, with whom Putin maintains almost daily contact.
Sechin is the CEO of Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft, and is Russia’s former deputy prime minister.
Russia and Belarus both kicked out of the Paralympic Games on the very eve of their arrival, after a brief time when they were going to be allowed to participate as “Neutral Paralympian Athletes”.
Switzerland, a country with a history of neutrality that dates back to the 16th century, has broken with that tradition and joined the EU in sanctioning Russia and Vladimir Putin. It has closed its borders to Russian airlines and frozen Putin’s assets in the country.
The DOJ said the case against Hanick marks the “first-ever criminal indictment” related to violations of U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia following the 2014 Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine.
“The Justice Department will do everything it can to stamp out Russian aggression and interference,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division in a statement."
Note that these were sanctions from the Crimea invasion.
The city of Newark, NJ, has voted to suspend the licenses of two Lukoil stations in the city. Lukoil is Russia’s second - largest energy company, but also owns and operates several gas stations in the United States.
The quadrennial meeting of the International Mathematical Union, scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg in July has been cancelled. The scheduled talks will all be Zoomed, without having an actual meeting. I assume the Field’s medal award ceremony will take place somewhere. Kyiv, assuming it is still in friendly hands? There already had been significant criticism of the IMU for having it in Russia in the first place, but this was the final straw.
Here’s an interesting one: Cogent, one of the internet “backbones” is cutting off Russia. They say they don’t want the Russian government to be able to use the internet to make cyber-attacks on Ukraine. However, others are saying that taking this step will make it more difficult for ordinary Russians to try to find out what’s going on independently of Russian state tv.
A chartered flight landed in Yellowknife, NWT, this week. Although the plane was owned by a Swiss company, it had been chartered by one of its passengers, a Russian.
Transport Canada has charged the passenger, the two pilots, and the company with breach of the restriction on Russian flights in Canada. Apparently the fact that it was chartered by the Russian brought it within the scope of the sanctions. $3,000 fine against the Russian passenger, and $3,000 fines for the pilot and co-pilots, plus a $15,000 fine for the company.
The plane will be allowed to leave, but with no passengers.
Apparently the passengers are part of a group trying to drive across every continent. One member of the group is Vasily Shakhnovsky, a Russian billionaire. They have a specially designed all-terrain vehicle that they were planning on driving north from Yellowknife, through Nunavut, across the Arctic ice to the North Pole, and then back south to Greenland. Click on the CBC article for pics of the ATV and their expedition map.
So, the unnamed Russian passenger will have to find a way home from Yellowknife, NWT, without flying to Russia. Probably will have to fly to Poland and take land transportation to Russia.
You’ve all heard about the United States locking out all Russian aircraft entering, leaving, or operating within U. S. airspace.
The order is broadly written, and appears to apply to ALL aircraft, general aviation as well as commercial, owned or operated by or on behalf of any Russian. Taken literally as written, it would seem to apply to all Russians, even Russian citizens legally living in the United States.
Russian flying instructors and Russian student pilots in the United States are now wondering if this means they are grounded. I know one such instructor. As of yesterday (Thursday) they are trying to get clarification from the FAA over this.
I posted a mention of this (including a link to the full text of the FAA order) in the other Sanctions thread and in the General Aviation Omnibus thread.
I read recently that people are posting comments and pictures of the invasion on online reviews of Russian restaurants, as a way to bypass other restrictions. Not sure how effective that is, but it’s a sneaky way to get info to average Russians.
Visa and Mastercard have suspended operations in Russia. Cards issued by Russian banks will no longer work, and Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards will not work at any Russian business or ATM.
Sounds to me like the Russian government is doing a fine job of making sure the average Russian doesn’t have access to any information they don’t want them to have, internet connection or not.
I’m of two minds about sanctions. On one hand, until or if NATO military intervention is undertaken, something has to be done and I guess sanctions are it.
On the other hand I don’t believe that sanctions will actually accomplish anything regarding Putin and his ilk, until they actually impact resource availability at his level. As such, I believe that the Russian populace will be in for a long period of shortages and suffering before the ruling class is affected.