WASHINGTON – Amid
reporting that Vladimir Putin has hired hundreds of mercenaries from Russia’s
Wagner Group to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Sen. Chuck
Grassley (R-Iowa) joined Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and several of his colleagues
in
calling
on the Biden administration to investigate and sanction the Wagner Group and
its affiliates.
In a
letter
to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the lawmakers urge the departments to
immediately take steps to punish these private actors and hold them
accountable.
“We write today to express our concern
regarding recent reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has hired
hundreds of mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group to assassinate Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. We ask for immediate action to be taken to
investigate these reports and to impose economic sanctions through the
Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) pursuant
to Executive Order 14024 on the Wagner Group, including Yevgeny Prigozhin,
Dmitry Utkin, and Konstantin Pikalov, as well as any other known affiliates,” the lawmakers wrote.
“According to the
reports, the Wagner Group entered Ukraine at the direction of Russian President
Vladimir Putin with the goal to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy to undermine the peace, security, political stability, and
territorial integrity of Ukraine as part of the Russian invasion. We owe it to
our allies to punish private actors to the greatest extent possible that
directly participate in Russia’s warmongering in Ukraine and we urge you to
take all necessary measures to hold them accountable,” the lawmakers concluded.
Sens. Lindsey
Graham (R-S.C.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) joined Grassley
and Ernst on the letter.
Read the full
letter by clicking HERE.
This week, Grassley has pushed
to ban any further imports of Russian oil; helped introduce the American Energy
Independence Act of 2022, which seeks to return American energy to full
production; introduced separate legislation to sanction all Russian state-owned enterprises; called on Russia to be removed
from the United Nations Security Council; and urged Treasury Secretary Janet
Yellen to block
Russian access to any additional financing through the International Monetary
Fund (IMF).
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