The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Crimean separatist leaders Pyotr Zima, Aleksei Chaliy, Rustam Temirgaliev, Yuriy Zherebtsov, Mikhail Malyshev, and Valery Medvedev, former Ukrainian official Sergey Tsekov, and Crimea-based gas company Chernomorneftegaz pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13660. These individuals and this entity are being sanctioned for being responsible for or complicit in, or having engaged in, actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in Ukraine, actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine, or misappropriation of state assets of Ukraine or of an economically significant entity in Ukraine; or having asserted governmental authority over any part or region of Ukraine without the authorization of the Government of Ukraine.
“Crimea is occupied territory. We will continue to impose costs on those involved in ongoing violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen.
On March 18, 2014 the Crimean parliament passed a resolution to seize the Crimean assets of a subsidiary of a Ukrainian state-owned gas company which has drilling rigs off Crimea’s west coast and in the Sea of Azov. The assets were transferred to an entity with the same name, Chernomorneftegaz, and same address. The parliament’s resolution said the takeover would include ownership of the region’s “continental shelf and the exclusive (maritime) economic zone.” Chernomorneftegaz is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13660 because it is complicit in the misappropriation of state assets of Ukraine or of an economically significant entity in Ukraine.
As a result of Treasury’s action, any assets of the persons designated today that are within U.S. jurisdiction must be frozen. Additionally, transactions by U.S. persons or with the United States involving these individuals and entity are generally prohibited.
