US Imposes Sanctions on Lawmakers Kozak and Voloshin, Plus Two Former Party of Regions Members

The US has acknowledged that they act against Ukraine on behalf of Russia.

The US Treasury Department has sanctioned two Opposition Bloc lawmakers, as well as two former lawmakers from the defunct Party of Regions. This was reported on the website of the American financial agency.

Specifically, the following were sanctioned:

1. Taras Kozak, a lawmaker who fled Ukraine ("Opposition Platform — For Life");
2. Deputy Oleg Voloshin (Opposition Bloc);
3. former Party of Regions deputy Volodymyr Oleinik;
4. Former deputy secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (until Yanukovych's flight in 2014), former Party of Regions deputy Volodymyr Sivkovich.

Although no Russian citizens are on the list, the US Treasury statement says the sanctions were imposed in connection with "Russia's harmful activities abroad" (Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Designations).

In a press statement, the US Treasury said Kozak, Voloshin, Sivkovich and Oleinik took part in "activities controlled by the Russian government" aimed at destabilizing the situation in Ukraine. 

According to the agency, they act on the instructions of Russia's FSB and played different roles in a Russian influence campaign to destabilize sovereign countries in favor of the Kremlin.

The US Treasury provides the following information about the sanctioned politicians:

• Fugitive Taras Kozak used media under his control to spread disinformation about the 2020 US elections, in particular broadcasting false claims by Andriy Derkach. Throughout 2020, he "worked together with FSB agents";
• Oleg Voloshin worked with Konstantin Kilimnik, who is linked to Russian intelligence and was sanctioned for attempting to influence the 2020 US presidential election;
• Volodymyr Oleinik fled Ukraine to Russia, now lives in Moscow and "shares Russia's anti-Western sentiments," and in 2021, on FSB orders, collected information on Ukraine's critical infrastructure;
• Volodymyr Sivkovich — in 2021 cooperated with Russian agents to carry out influence operations aimed at "securing support in Ukraine for the official transfer of Crimea to Russia in exchange for the withdrawal of Russian-backed forces from Donbas." In early 2020 he coordinated with Russian special services the spread of Derkach's fakes aimed at the US presidential election.

Andriy Derkach was sanctioned by the US in September 2020. According to Washington, he maintains close ties with Russian intelligence and has been an active Russian agent for more than a decade.

At the height of the US presidential race, Derkach released recordings which, he claimed, captured negotiations between fifth president Petro Poroshenko and former vice president and now US president Joe Biden, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin.