The United States added new sanctions on the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for taking “hostage” Americans such as Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Moscow last month.
The FSB is main successor intelligence agency to the Soviet Union’s KGB.
The United States is “showing that one cannot engage in this sort of awful behavior of using human beings as pawns, as bargaining chips, without paying consequences,” a senior US official was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
The US Treasury also placed sanctions on four top officials of the IRGC intelligence body.
“Today’s action targets senior officials and security services in Iran and Russia that are responsible for the hostage-taking or wrongful detention of US nationals abroad,” said Treasury Under Secretary of the Brian Nelson in a statement.
Both the FSB and IRGC have already been hit with punitive measures by the US State and Treasury Departments in the past.
Latest US sanctions on Russia, Iran: What do they mean?
The new sanctions reportedly underscore Washington’s view that its adversaries are detaining foreign nationals to extract political benefits.
“The use of human beings as political pawns, as bargaining chips, detained by governments but on false pretenses, is a practice that seems to be trending in the wrong direction,” the aforementioned official further told AFP.
Applying sanctions aims “to promote accountability for the culprits, and by doing so, to prevent and deter the next set of cases from arising in the first place,” the official said.
The sanctions came a month after Russia detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, charging him with spying.
American citizens detained by Iran and Russia
The United States is seeking the release of Evan Gershkovich, and that of Paul Whelan, a former US Marine arrested in Russia in 2018 and sentenced to prison two years later for alleged spying.
ALSO WATCH | Russia charges WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich with spying
Last year in prisoner swaps the US secured the release from Russia of basketball star Brittney Griner, jailed on drugs charges and another former Marine, Trevor Reed, imprisoned for assaulting a Russian police officer.
At least three US citizens are being held in Iranian prisons, including businessman Siamak Namazi, held in Tehran’s Evin prison since 2015.
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