US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that the White House has for the first time implemented a new tool of economic sanctions against those who hold Americans hostage or wrongfully detain US citizens around the world. The new tool allows you to impose sanctions on governments and their subordinate departments, as well as certain groups of people involved in the unlawful detention of Americans.
Biden stressed that from the earliest days of his administration, he has “placed the highest priority on the safe return of Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad.”
“We have already repatriated dozens of Americans, many of whom were detained before I took office. Yet far too many people are suffering and separated from their loved ones, including Americans who continue to be unjustly detained in Russia, in Iran and elsewhere. We remain steadfast in our efforts to keep our faith in them and their families, to seek new ways to bring them home until we succeed, and to prevent this from happening to other families. in the future,” Biden said. Today — and every day — we call on Russia, Iran, and the world: Holding Americans hostage or unlawfully detaining them is unacceptable. Release them. immediately.”
On Thursday, the Departments of State and Treasury announced the first-ever US government sanctions against entities involved in the unlawful detention of Americans. These sanctions target two special services – the FSB in Russia and the intelligence apparatus of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran (IRGC-IO), and 4 high-ranking employees of the IRGC-IO.
According to Biden, the imposition of these sanctions was made possible by an executive order from the US president, which he issued in the summer of 2022 and which is based on the 2020 Hostage Return and Accountability Act. of hostages.
Family members of American hostages overseas worked hard to pass this law.
The FSB arrested a Wall Street Journal correspondent, Evan Gershkovich, on March 29 in Ekaterinburg, accused of espionage. According to the statements of the Russian special service, the journalist collected secret information about the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation. Gershkovich denies the charges against him.
The United States declared Gershkovich “wrongfully detained”. President Joe Biden has called his detention “completely illegal”.
In February 2022, Russian authorities arrested basketball player Brittney Griner. She was sentenced by Russian authorities to nine years in a maximum-security penal colony for drug possession. She was arrested at a Moscow airport in February 2022 due to vaping cartridges containing cannabis oil found in her luggage. Late last year, she was traded for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Among the Americans currently being held by Russian authorities is former Marine Paul Whelan, convicted in Russia of espionage in 2020 and serving a 16-year prison sentence.
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