Four hotels in Ukraine’s Crimea region, annexed by Russia, have been placed under U.S. sanctions against Russia, including the Mriya Resort & Spa, ranked as the world’s best holiday hotel and resort by the prestigious World Travel Awards, Russian media report.
On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department broadened the list of previously introduced Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia. The new list includes two Ukrainians, a Russian officer, and nine entities. The punitive measures were initially introduced in response to the reunification of the Crimean peninsula with Russia after a regional referendum in 2014. Washington had also accused Moscow of meddling with Ukrainian internal policy and fueling the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Russia’s Mriya Resort & Spa is located 25 kilometers from the Crimean city of Yalta. The complex was built with the financial support of Russia’s state-controlled lender Sberbank and is used to host the Yalta International Economic Forum.
The hotel was named the best holiday hotel and resort by the World Travel Awards in 2017. The year before, jury of the travel industry’s most prestigious awards programme recognized Mriya Resort & Spa as Europe’s leading leisure resort. In 2015, Mriya won the title of Europe’s leading new resort.
Apart from Mriya Resort & Spa, the U.S. sanctions target the Ai-Petri health resort, the Dulber holiday resort, and the Resort Complex Miskhor – all located in Crimea and established by the companies working in the peninsula.