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EU Slaps Sanctions on 6 Russian Groups Over Crimea Bridge


FILE - Cars drive along a bridge, which was constructed to connect the Russian mainland with the Crimean peninsula across the Kerch Strait, May 16, 2018. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
FILE - Cars drive along a bridge, which was constructed to connect the Russian mainland with the Crimean peninsula across the Kerch Strait, May 16, 2018. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

The European Union has imposed asset freezes on six Russian firms for their involvement in the construction of a new road-and-rail bridge linking Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula, which the bloc says is illegal.

Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 after Ukraine's pro-Russian president was toppled in an uprising. The West condemned the seizure as an illegal annexation and imposed sanctions on Moscow.

After the annexation, the Kremlin ordered the building of a $3.6 million bridge to link the peninsula to Russia.

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin drives a Kamaz dump truck during a ceremony opening the Kerch Strait Bridge, which connects the Russian mainland with territorially disputed Crimea, May 15, 2018.
FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin drives a Kamaz dump truck during a ceremony opening the Kerch Strait Bridge, which connects the Russian mainland with territorially disputed Crimea, May 15, 2018.

The bridge, part of which was unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin in May, has drawn strong rebukes from the EU which says it is a further violation of Ukraine's sovereignty.

A statement from the EU Council, which sets the bloc's foreign and security policy, named six firms that will have their assets in the EU frozen. EU persons and entities will not be able to make funds available to them, it said.

The companies include three firms — PJSC Mostotrest, SGM and Stroygazmontazh Most OOO — controlled by billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, President Vladimir Putin's former

Judo sparring partner. Construction firm CJSC VAD, engineering firm GPSM and the Zaliv Shipyard were also named.

"Through their actions they supported the consolidation of Russia's control over the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula, which in turn further undermines the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine," the Council said.

Ukraine's foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin said he welcomed the additional sanctions.

"Important warning also for European businesses not to go down same slippery slope," Klimkin wrote on Twitter.

Russia criticized the sanctions, saying they targeted people living on the peninsula.

"This is a policy of undermining, directed against Crimea's residents," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.

Rotenberg brushed aside the sanctions in a social media post, saying work was underway to complete the railway section of the bridge.

"We're all proud of our work and if someone doesn't like it that's not our problem," a spokesman for Rotenberg quoted him on the Telegram messaging service as saying.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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