From our correspondent in Moscow
The us Treasury department announced on Thursday evening that the imposition of new sanctions against three Russian representatives and Ukrainian, as well as nine legal entities, related to the annexation of Crimea and the conflict in the Donbass. This decision, very political, is two days of elections scheduled in the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk, intended to appoint a new president after the assassination of the previous, Alexandre Zakhartchenko, who was killed in a bomb attack at the end of August. The same electoral process will take place in the neighboring republic self-proclaimed Luhansk also in the hands of the leaders of the separatists pro-russians sponsored by the Kremlin.
The western countries, and Washington in particular consider this vote “illegitimate” and in violation of peace agreements in Minsk, signed in February of 2015 from Moscow, Kiev, Paris and Berlin. This is the twenty-seventh series of sanctions decided by the White House since the events of the spring of 2014 that hit hundreds of political leaders and economic entities, and legal. One of the entities referred to Thursday – the limited liability company Southern Project – is linked to the bank Rossiya, and Russian businessman Yuri Kovalchuk, a very close to Vladimir Putin.
Moscow accuses Kiev of not adhering to agreements Minsk
“The Russian command and control 100 % of what is happening in the occupied territories, military forces, political entities, as well as the direct economic activity”, has accused the u.s. special envoy for the negotiations, Ukrainian, Kurt Volker, in a telephone interview organised a little earlier in the afternoon. The latter has defended the imposition of “sanctions robust” for, according to him, to force Moscow to work for a political solution.
According to Russia, this election is made necessary by the risk, existing according to it, a destabilization increased in the territory after the violent death of Alexandre Zakhartchenko. The Kremlin also evoked the fear of a political vacuum. For its part, Moscow accuses Kiev of not adhering to agreements of Minsk. “The organisation of elections legitimate implies freedom of movement, freedom to campaign, freedom of the press and of expression, are all conditions that are not fulfilled currently,” replied the american representative Kurt Volker, who defends the sending of a mission of peacekeeping UN-supervised.
Already, on the 30th of October, eight european members of the security Council, including France, had issued a joint declaration read in the pregnant un, explaining that the elections of November 11, “in contravention of the agreements of Minsk, and in breach of the law of ukraine”.
