Canada sanctions Abramovich, bars defense trade with 32 Russian firms, entities

Russian billionaire and owner of Chelsea football club Roman Abramovich arrives at a division of the High Court in central London October 31, 2011. REUTERS/Andrew Winning/File Photo

March 11 (Reuters) – Canada imposed sanctions on five Russian individuals including billionaire Roman Abramovich and is barring 32 Russian companies and government entities from receiving defense equipment or supplies from Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Warsaw on Friday.

The Canadian operations of Russian steelmaker Evraz, of which Abramovich is the largest shareholder, will not be affected by the move, Trudeau said at a news conference.

“The sanctions on Russian officials and oligarchs like Abramovich are directed at them so that they cannot profit or benefit from economic activities in Canada or the hard work of Canadians working in companies that they have investments in,” Trudeau said.

“We are obviously going to watch carefully but we are confident that this will not impact the hard working Canadians who are doing good work in companies across the country.”

On Monday, Canada slapped sanctions on 10 individuals close to the Russian leadership over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Trudeau said he would not rule out an airlift to help Ukrainians who have fled the country since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. He said his government was looking at all options and planned to do more to help.

Canada and its allies will remain united in their conviction that Russian President “Vladimir Putin has made a terrible mistake and will end up losing, despite how many bombs he can drop on hospitals, or perhaps even because of it. There is no win in this for him,” Trudeau said.

Moscow denies it has been attacking civilians in what it calls a “special operation” to disarm and “de-Nazify” Ukraine. read more

Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Toby Chopra, Hugh Lawson, William Maclean

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.