MOSCOW, August 14 (RAPSI) - The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury published revised sanctions guidelines on its website, RIA Novosti reports.

According to the new guidelines, if one or several owners included on the US sanctions lists control at least 50% of a company’s property in total, this property shall be frozen and be subject to the sanctions. The rule also applies to indirect ownership. Previously, the sanctions were imposed on legal entities if owned by a person on the sanctions list with a share of at least 50%.

Bloomberg agency reports that the measure will mainly affect the SOGAZ insurance company. It is controlled by Rossiya Bank and Gennady Timchenko’s Volga Group investment fund. Both the bank and Timchenko were included on the US sanctions list in response to the reunification of Crimea with Russia.

Currently, US and EU sanctions affect dozens of Russian business people, politicians and companies. Most of these people are banned from entering the US and the EU, and their assets in the US and the EU have been frozen and are subject to seizure. Western companies are also not allowed to deal with Russian defense industry companies. The major corporations on the sanctions list are Rosneft, NOVATEK, Gazprombank and Vnesheconombank. However, Western companies are only banned from issuing loans of over 90 days to them.