12 top Russian politicians, Putin cronies on EU blacklist

Twelve top Russian politicians, members of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, and Black Sea and Crimea commanders feature on a new EU sanctions blacklist agreed Friday. Topping the latest European Union sanctions list -- which brings the total number of Russians and Ukrainians targeted to 33 -- is deputy premier Dmitry Rogozin. Key Putin aides Vladislav Surkov and Sergei Glazyev will also be subject to an EU asset freeze and visa ban, according to the list obtained by AFP which will be released officially later. It also includes both the speaker of the upper house Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko, formally Russia's third most important politician, and the speaker of the lower house State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin. Both of them were listed for publicly supporting the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine. All five are also subject to US sanctions decided in the last days. Unlike Washington, which also targeted a bank, the 28-nation bloc's punitive measures stopped short of listing firms or entities. "All these sanctions aren't worth a grain of sand of the Crimean land that returned to Russia," Rogozin said in a tweet. The EU however listed the head of the Russian news agency Russia Today, Dmitry Kiselyov, as well as two deputy commanders of the Black Sea fleet, Rear Admirals Alexander Nosatov and Valery Kulikov. The de-facto commander of Russian troops deployed on the ground in Crimea -- officially referred to by Russia as "local self-defence militias" -- General Igor Turchenyuk is also on the list. The remaining two names are Mikhail Malyshev, the head of the Crimea electoral commission involved in running last weekend's controversial referendum, and Valery Medvedev, head of the Sevastopol electoral commission. "All these sanctions aren't worth a grain of sand of the Crimean land that returned to Russia," Rogozin said in a tweet. The EU list "is quite like the US" list, said French President Francois Hollande.