Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly Friday declared new sanctions against 15 Russian individuals and three entities following human rights violations and state-sponsored violence faced by political opponents and critics in Russia. The new sanctions aim to supplement the previous sanctions by expanding the list of restricted individuals and entities. Canada has previously imposed sanctions on hundreds of Russian officials and oligarchs over the crisis in Ukraine. 

In the news release, Joly stated: 

Canada continues to condemn the Kremlin’s ongoing and systematic human rights abuses, which have supported Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. We call on Vladimir Putin to immediately put an end to these abuses and to end his illegal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine.

The sanctioned individuals and entities are senior Russian government officials, judiciary, investigative committees and federally funded courts (Basmanny District Court of Moscow, Khamovnicheskiy District Court of Moscow and Moscow City Court). The Basmanny District Court has been directly involved in human rights abuses against Russian opposition leaders through multiple prison sentences for support of human rights, freedom of speech or opposition to Vladimir Putin’s regime. 

Since February 2022, over 20,000 people have been arrested for speaking out against the Putin regime, protesting freedom of speech and defending human rights. Vladimir Kara-Murza was the victim of two poisoning attempts and was arrested in April last year and sentenced to 25 years in prison for “high treason,” “disseminating false information about the army of the Russian Federation” and participation in an “undesirable organisation.” Alexei Navalny was also poisoned on Moscow’s orders during a domestic flight and sentenced to 11.5 years for “fraud” and “contempt of court” and 19 years for “extremism.” 

Under Schedule 1 of the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations (Regulations), subject to limited exceptions, any person in Canada or any Canadian outside Canada cannot:

• deal in any property, wherever situated that is owned, held or controlled by or on behalf of a designated person whose name is listed in Schedule 1;
• enter into or facilitate, directly or indirectly, any transaction related to such a dealing;
• provide any financial or other related services in respect of such a dealing;
• make available any goods, wherever situated, to a designated person listed in Schedule 1 or to a person acting on their behalf; or
• provide any financial or related service to, or for the benefit of, a designated person listed in Schedule 1.

The new imposition of sanctions is the sixth addition to the Regulations this year.