Olga Lyubimova, Russia’s tradition minister, has been included in the USA Division of the Treasury’s up to date sanctions record launched on 24 February, the primary anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Lyubimova, who was already sanctioned by the European Union in late 2022, was added to the US sanctions record together with quite a few Russian authorities officers and Russian and international businessmen accused of evading sanctions. The Treasury Division’s press launch didn’t specify why Lyubimova was focused, however acknowledged that the aim of the brand new record is “to diminish Russia’s potential to proceed its brutal struggle and to obtain the sources used to assist it”.
The tradition minister, who changed Vladimir Medinsky in 2020, has been a vocal proponent of President Vladimir Putin’s struggle in opposition to Ukraine. Medinsky, whose imperial historic pretentions presaged the invasion and who led Russia’s short-lived negotiations with Ukraine after the invasion, is now an aide to Putin.
Lyubimova sat amongst prime officers when Putin gave his State of the Nation handle on 21 February, during which he mentioned that, “Cultural improvement will likely be a precedence of rebuilding peaceable life in Donbass and Novorossiya”—Russia’s names for territories of Ukraine that it has illegally annexed—“together with museum collections and buildings” to assist hyperlink them “with the widespread cultural, historic and academic house of the centuries-old nice Russia”.
As minister, Lyubimova has promoted Putin’s narrative of denying Ukraine’s nationhood and tradition, and claiming that the West is in search of to destroy Russian cultural and religious values. Her conferences with Putin are featured prominently on the Kremlin’s web site and nationwide information broadcasts.
“The challenges confronted by Russia, all the Russian world, our tradition, are unprecedented,” Lyubimova mentioned final month at an academic discussion board organised by the Russian Orthodox Church, which additionally actively helps the struggle. “Throughout this era, every particular person faces a alternative, together with a religious one. Residents of 4 new topics of the Russian Federation additionally made their alternative. Greater than 20,000 workers of cultural establishments, Lugansk and Donetsk republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson areas turned our new colleagues. Inventive {and professional} alternate between our groups and establishments, integration of latest areas into the cultural lifetime of the nation is our precedence.”
