On March 17, 2014, by Executive Order, President Obama imposed asset freezes and travel bans on eleven people, as listed on the White House Fact Sheet including Dmitry Rogozin, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Valentina Matviyenko, Head of the Federation Council, and Vladimir Konstantinov, the speaker of the Crimean parliament. This is further to an Executive Order of March 6, 2014, “finding that the actions and policies of the Government of the Russian Federation with respect to Ukraine – including the recent deployment of Russian Federation military forces in the Crimea region of Ukraine – undermine democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine; threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; and contribute to the misappropriation of its assets, and thereby constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

Also on March 17, 2014, the European Council brought into force, by decision and implementing regulation, restrictive measures which freeze the assets of, and impose travel restrictions on, twenty-one persons deemed to be “responsible for actions which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”