U.S., EU Sanction Russians, Ukrainians after Crimea Vote

The United States on Monday imposed financial sanctions on seven top Russian government officials and lawmakers to punish Russia's incursion into Crimea.

In a new executive order, President Barack Obama also imposed sanctions against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and one of his top advisors and two top "separatist" leaders in Crimea.

The moves cemented the deepest confrontation between Washington and the Kremlin since the Cold War, and came as Crimea took several steps towards joining Russia a day after voting to do so in a referendum the West has called illegitimate.

Senior U.S. officials said the sanctions were designed to punish "cronies" of Russian President Vladimir Putin's government who were intimately involved in the move into Crimea.

The list of officials who will see any property, assets and interests blocked in the United States includes Dmitry Rogozin, deputy prime minister, and several senior members of the Duma and advisors to President Vladimir Putin.

They also included Vladislav Surkov and Sergei Glazyev, key aides to Putin and Duma members Leonid Slutsky, Yelena Mizulina.

Federation Council members Andrei Klishas and Valentina Matviyenko are also targeted.

The officials targeted in Crimea include Sergei Aksyonov, who has named himself the interim prime minister of the territory and Vladimir Konstantinov, the speaker of the Crimean parliament.

Any assets of Yanukovych and Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of the pro-Russia "Ukrainian Choice" faction, in the United States will also be seized, the White House said.

Earlier, European Union foreign ministers agreed sanctions against 21 Russian and Ukrainian officials deemed responsible for a contested secession referendum in Crimea, officials said.

Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told AFP that the 21 would be targeted by travel bans and asset freezes.

"These are persons from so-called Crimea leadership and Russian representatives, specifically from Duma and representatives of military forces, that took part in these illegal actions," he told AFP.

The minister said in a tweet that there would be "more EU measures in few days."

Leaders of the 28-nation bloc are to hold summit talks in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, with the crisis in Ukraine expected to top the agenda.

The list of those sanctioned by the ministers will be released in the EU's daily Official Journal but diplomats said 13 were from Russia and 8 from Ukraine's Crimea region.

They were targeted "for undermining the sovereignty of Ukraine."

The ministers met after a referendum Sunday showed an overwhelming majority in Crimea in favor of joining Russia, a vote the EU condemned as illegal and in violation of Moscow's own international commitments to preserve the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Canada also slapped sanctions later on Monday on seven Russian and three Crimean senior officials it said "bear political responsibility for the crisis" in the former Soviet satellite.

Those targeted by sanctions announced by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper include an adviser and an aide to Putin, as well as Russian Deputy PM Rogozin.

Crimea's Prime Minister Serhiy Aksyonov and chairman of Crimea's parliament, Viktor Medvedchuk, were also named.

Harper is scheduled to travel to Ukraine on Saturday to meet with Ukrainian interim prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

He will be the first G7 leader to visit the country since tensions broke out between Ukraine and Russia over the Crimean peninsula.

Canada has 1.2 million citizens who trace their ancestry to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers named by the White House as falling under sanctions reacted defiantly.

"There hasn't been anything like this even in the Cold War years," said Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, quoted by Interfax news agency.

"This is political blackmail," said Matviyenko, a former deputy prime minister, denying she had any assets, accounts or property abroad.

"No one will manage to scare us with threats," she said.

Lawmaker Yelena Mizulina, the author of a controversial law banning gay "propaganda" to minors, also denied she had any assets or property abroad.

"I personally think they are stooping to a very low, banal level. For a strong country, that's not dignified," she told a briefing, quoted by Interfax.

Putin's aide Vladislav Surkov, known as a shadowy eminence grise of the Kremlin, called the sanctions "a great honor for me" in comments to Moskovsky Komsomolets daily.

Surkov, who has composed rock lyrics as a hobby and is rumored to have written a novel under a pseudonym, vowed the measures would not stop him enjoying U.S. culture, including the music of late rapper Tupac Shakur.

"The U.S. I am interested in Tupac Shakur, Allen Ginsberg and Jackson Pollock. I don't need a visa to access their work. So I lose nothing," he added, referring also to the Beat poet and drip painter.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin reacted with irony on Twitter, writing in Russian: "Worldwide recognition at last!"

"I think some prankster prepared the draft of this Act of the U.S. President," he added in English.

Federation Council members Andrei Klishas told Interfax he saw "no tragedy" in the sanctions, adding that: "The group of people that I find myself in suits me just fine."

The head of the State Duma's committee for relations with ex-Soviet states, Leonid Slutsky, told Interfax: "I have no accounts or property in the USA. As for private visits, I'll have to get by without them."

Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told journalists he was "outraged by the decision of the U.S. administration to introduce sanctions," cited by the ITAR-TASS news agency.

He slammed the U.S. for its "one-sided and unbalanced approach absolutely ignoring reality."