The implemented decision of the National Security and Defense Council to impose sanctions on 55 Russian citizens and three museums registered under Russian law operating on the TOT launches international sanctions pressure for crimes against Ukrainian cultural heritage.
This was stated in a comment to "Apostrophe" by Deputy Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications for European Integration Andriy Nadzhos.
"We have launched processes where punishment for the theft of cultural values will be inevitable. When we ask partners, for example, in the EU: please, there is such a problem, introduce sanctions, we are always faced with the question: what have you done at the national level? And when we say that at the national level we have worked it out, and these individuals are sanctioned, accordingly, this opens up the opportunity for us to continue these negotiations. That is, they cannot introduce sanctions against those who steal cultural values if we have not done so," he noted.
Najos also spoke about further steps for sanctions pressure for the removal of cultural values from the occupied territories.
“The next step we want to take is against museum workers. There are heads of Russian museums who are taking out and want to exhibit our stolen valuables during various museum exhibitions. We cannot allow this. We want to block the re-election of any representatives of the Russian Federation to the governing bodies of the International Council of Museums. This will be our second step,” the official emphasized.
As a reminder, Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed the opinion that the only person Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is afraid of is US President Donald Trump. In particular, because of the possibility of increased sanctions pressure.