US sanctions Chechnya's elite police unit, Russia intends reciprocal response

RT
Thu, 16 May 2019 17:53 UTC

© Sputnik / Said Tsarnaev

Chechen SOBR special police unit during a military parade in Grozny in 2013

The US has blacklisted a Russian police unit in the southern republic of Chechnya as well as five individuals, under the Global Magnitsky Act that allows Washington to sanction 'human rights abusers' anywhere.

Thursday's announcement by the Treasury Department affects the Terek Special Rapid Response Team (SOBR), the Russian equivalent of a SWAT team. The sanctions also apply against the team commander, listed as Abuzayed Vismuradov.

Four more individuals were added to the blacklist, including the warden of Penal Colony IK-7 by the name of Sergey Leonidovich Kossiev. The official positions of three other sanctioned Russian citizens were not given.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov swiftly went for a tit-for-tat response, stating the authors of the sanctions are on his special blacklist too. "I officially make it clear for the authors of this scribble - all of you are on OUR lists!" Kadyrov stated on his Telegram channel. He added that the move convinced him the republic is "on the right path" and that it shows the US is "afraid" of "small Chechnya, located very far from large America."

Enacted in December 2016, the Global Magnitsky Act allows the US government to sanction anyone it sees as violating human rights anywhere in the world, freezing any assets they may have in the US and preventing them from entering. It was an expansion of the 2012 law specifically targeting Russia.

These are the first Magnitsky-related sanctions in 2019, and the first addition to that particular blacklist since the November 2018 sanctions against 17 Saudi nationals suspected of involvement in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Comment: RT reports that in Russia also intends to respond reciprocally:

Moscow to react 'reciprocally' to US blacklisting of elite Chechen police unit - Kremlin

Russia will respond 'reciprocally' to the US sanctions placed on Chechen special police unit Terek, Vladimir Putin's spokesperson said, slamming Washington's move as 'destructive.'

"Obviously, the principle of reciprocity applies here," Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, adding that Washington's recent actions against Chechnya's Terek Special Rapid Response Team will trigger "necessary countermeasures."

Peskov did not specify what steps are being considered.

On Thursday, the US Treasury Department included the rapid-response unit - a local equivalent of a SWAT team - into the anti-Russian sanctions list. The sanctions also personally apply to the team's commander.

It was done under the 2016 Global Magnitsky Act, which is an extension of an earlier US law adopted to target Moscow. The legislation allows the US government to sanction anyone it sees as complicit in violating human rights anywhere in the world.

Russian officials heavily criticized the law, saying that Washington does not provide sufficient evidence for its enactment and uses it to target people arbitrarily.

First the US sanctions Iran's Revolutionary Guard accusing it of being a terrorist organization, and now it blacklists the Chechen elite police unit, it's not immediately clear what the US' intentions are, other than an attempt to smear Chechnya and, by-proxy, Russia.

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It's a pretty outrageous claim considering that American police have a well earned reputation for their violent and inhumane treatment of citizens but the US government does nothing to correct the abuses at home: Woman who claimed to be pregnant killed by Texas cop during arrest scuffle

Also check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Bill Browder, the Magnitsky Act, and anti-Russia Sanctions: Interview with Alex Krainer