US Issues New Russia Sanctions Over Profiting on Crimean Resort

Treasury Dept: US will sanction all who profit from Crimean annexation

The US Treasury Department has announced a new round of sanctions being imposed against targets inside Russia, mostly related to investments in a successful and profitable hotel and resort on the Crimean Peninsula.

US officials are saying they will sanction all who profit from the annexation of Crimea. Crimea was struggling as a semi-autonomous part of Ukraine, and even though infrastructure work is still underway to connect Crimea to Russia, the Black Sea coast is an attractive tourist destination for Russians, and Crimea has a lot of coastline.

Those listed in this latest flurry of sanctions were tied to the Mriya Resort and Spa in the southern Crimean city of Yalta. The high-end hotel location is being funded by Sberbank, one of Russia’s major banks.

This is just the continuation of a long string of US sanctions against Russia on increasingly flimsy pretexts. While the US has threatened to sanction anyone making a profit in Crimea, it still seems scarcely worth the Treasury Department’s time to track down every nice hotel on the Crimean Peninsula to punish investors.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.