"White House implements visa ban, asset freezes and export licence denials on panoply of Russian officials close to Vladimir Putin
Igor Sechin
The most notable name on the list is Igor Sechin, the head of Russia's largest oil company and an ally of Putin's since the early 1990s, when both worked in the St Petersburg mayoral administration. Sechin previously worked as Putin's deputy chief of staff and deputy prime minister and is considered to be a leader of the conservative bloc within the Kremlin.
Since taking over Rosneft, he has cultivated contacts with western investors, and the news of his sanction could raise questions about a joint venture between Exxon Mobil and Rosneft to develop Arctic oil fields. BP holds a 19.75% stake in Rosneft. A spokesman said the company was "committed to our investment in Rosneft".
Vyacheslav Volodin
Widely believed to be in charge of the regime's internal political strategy, Volodin, a career bureaucrat, was an MP and high-ranking member of the ruling United Russia party. According to the US Treasury Department statement accompanying the sanctions, "Putin's decision to move into Crimea is believed to have been based on consultations with his closest advisors, including Volodin".
Sergei Chemezov
CEO ROSTEC
Chemezov and Putin first became friends when they lived in the same apartment complex in East Germany in the 1980s. Chemezov previously worked in the presidential administration and now heads of the tech industry state corporation Rostec, which was was created in 2007 to consolidate the management of Russian industry and now controls or has stakes in hundreds of companies.
Dmitry Kozak
Deputy prime minister
A Kremlin loyalist who has worked with Putin since the beginning of the Russian leader's political ascent, Kozak is a lawyer by training who, like Putin, worked in Soviet intelligence and then the St Petersburg mayoral administration. He is known as a specialist in handling sensitive Kremlin projects: the deputy prime minister served as Putin's point man on the Sochi Olympics and was put in charge of Crimea's development after Russia annexed the peninsula last month.
Oleg Belavencev
Putin's envoy to Crimea
A former vice admiral in the Russian navy who was deported from the UK in 1985 on suspicion of spying, Belavantsev was recently named presidential envoy to Crimea and appointed to Russia's security council.
Eveniy Murov
Director of Russia's Federal Protective Service
An army general and veteran of state intelligence agencies since 1971. As head of the federal protection service, he oversees the security of the country's leadership.
Aleksei Pushkov
United Russia MP
Chair of the international affairs committee in the Russian Duma, or lower house of parliament, representing the pro-Kremlin United Russia party and a leading voice on Russia's foreign policy".
