Procedure of excluding someone from list of US sanctions is slow and heavy - Karins

RIGA - The procedure of excluding someone from the list of US sanctions is slow and heavy, but the Latvian government will do everything possible so that Ventspils port may continue operations, said Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins (New Unity) in an interview with the Latvian public television today.

He reminded that the government has already made the first steps so that the Ventspils port could be deleted from the list of sanctions, but the work will go on, considering that the procedure of excluding someone from the list of sanctions is heavy and slow.

Asked about any examples when a legal entity has been excluded from the list, Karins said that he cannot name any, but negotiations with the US will be carried on in any way.

As reported, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) on December 9 imposed sanctions on a number of natural and legal persons in Europe, Asia and Latin America, including on Latvia's Ventspils mayor Aivars Lembergs, based on the so-called Magnitsky act.

OFAC has listed four organizations that belong to or are controlled by Lembergs - Vetspils Freeport Administration, Ventspils Development Agency, Business Development Agency, and the Latvian Transport Business Association.

To deal with Lembergs' influence in the Freeport of Ventspils, the government on Wednesday decided to take over the ports of Ventspils and Riga.