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Sydney (Australia), Feb 26 (EFE).- The Australian government announced this Saturday a new round of sanctions directed directly at Russian President Vladimir Putin for the decision to invade Ukraine.
“It is an exceptional measure to sanction leaders, but the situation is exceptional,” Foreign Minister Marise Payne stressed at a press conference after returning to her country from a tour of Europe and Southeast Asia.
“Putin has unprecedented personal power over his country and has chosen to go to war against a neighbor who posed no threat to Russia, because he wants to reverse history and take away the freedom and democracy that the Ukrainian people chose for themselves.” declared the Australian foreign minister.
This is the third round of sanctions imposed by Australia against Russian politicians, military and oligarchs, in addition to several banks and ban investment in the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, in eastern Ukraine and self-proclaimed people’s republics whose Russian recognition accelerated the invasion .
Payne advanced that they are studying more sanctions – along the same lines as the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other allied nations.
“The next immediate priority is to continue sanctions on Putin’s inner circle and on Russia’s defense industry,” Payne said.
The Government of Australia, a historical ally of the United States, has expressed on several occasions that it has no intention of deploying troops in Eastern Europe because it has to maintain security in the Indo-Pacific, but it has promised to send military aid ” non-lethal” and medical supplies.
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