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EU Hits Six Russian Firms With Sanctions Over Crimea Bridge

Reuters

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The European Union has added six Russian entities to its list of those subject to restrictive measures and sanctions over their involvement in building a bridge connecting Russia and the illegally annexed Crimea.

The Kerch Bridge is a $3.6 billion project, Reuters reported Tuesday, that will link Russia to Crimea after Russia seized the state from the Ukraine in 2014. The EU has strongly condemned the annexation and does not recognize it. The bridge is causing criticism from the West, as the EU is calling it a further violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.

“The measures consist of an asset freeze, meaning that all of the assets in the EU belonging to these entities are frozen and EU persons and entities cannot make any funds available to them,” according to statement posted on the EU Council’s website.

These additions now bring the sanctions list to 44 entities and also imposes a travel ban and an asset freeze on 155 individuals. (RELATED: Treasury Department Hits Russia With Hacking Sanctions)

The list of sanctioned firms include PJSC Mostotrest, SGM, Stroygazmontazh Most OOO, CJSC VAD, an engineering firm GPSM and the Zaliv Shipyard.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin welcomed the additional sanctions on Twitter, saying it’s also an important lesson for European businesses to not go down the same slope.

Some in Russia criticized the sanctions, while others brushed it off.

“We’re all proud of our work and if someone doesn’t like it that’s not our problem,” a spokesman for businessman Arkady Rotenberg said, according to Reuters.

These sanctions come after U.S. President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte both stated they had no plans to lift sanctions against Russia, at a press conference at the White House Monday.

Conte said that lifting EU sanctions on Russia over its treatment of Ukraine would be “unthinkable,” according to transcripts posted on the White House website.

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