Kyiv, February 25 (PolitNavigator, Vladimir Mikhailov) - Targeted Western sanctions against the Russian Federation are ineffective; in order to force the Russian government to make concessions, the United States and the EU should impose sanctions against all Russian civil servants.
This was stated at a press conference in Kyiv by Ilya Ponomarev, the only State Duma deputy who did not support the annexation of Crimea to Russia, and who has recently been living in the United States.
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“If we look at how these sanctions act on Russia, we will see that they do not work. As our deputy Vyacheslav Nikonov stated, in Russia there is now a competition to be included in the list of persons against whom personal sanctions have been adopted. Those approximately 120 people who are on the list receive money, career advancement, and thereby become the “certified” elite of Russia. The action would be completely different if sanctions were applied to all employees,” advises Ponomarev.
Russian political scientist Oleg Bondarenko believes that the statements made by Ponomarev in Kyiv could become a reason for depriving him of his parliamentary mandate.
“First of all, Mr. Ponomarev himself should be subject to sanctions, who, using his deputy mandate and continuing to receive a deputy salary from Russian taxpayers, is actually calling for a coup d’etat and strengthening external sanctions against his country. These should be our Russian sanctions against him personally. Such words must be answered in court. And they should have taken away the deputy mandate in the first place yesterday. I am sure that such a statement from a Russian government official who has sold out to Khodorkovsky and de facto lives in the United States will have the most serious consequences for him,” Bondarenko said.