Russian President Vladimir Putin with oligarch Alisher Usmanov. File Photo.
Washington: Targeting the financial networks of two of Moscow’s richest businessmen who are also close allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, both the United Kingdom and the United States on Wednesday announced new sanctions against oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Roman Abramovich.
US officials said the new designations, which were coordinated with the British government, aim to reinforce existing penalties and further disrupt Russia’s use of critical technologies used in its war against Ukraine.
Usmanov has been the subject of US and European Union sanctions since shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. On the other hand, Abramovich, who built a fortune in Russia’s oil and aluminium industries following the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, was forced to sell the Chelsea football club after he was cited last year.
Usmanov and Abramovich were early targets of Western sanctions aimed at key Russian sectors and individuals close to Putin. Germany had previously seized Usmanov’s superyacht, known as Dilbar.
The yacht, named after Usmanov’s mother, has an estimated worth of between $600 million and $735 million, according to the Treasury Department. Dilbar has two helipads and one of the world’s largest indoor pools ever installed on a yacht, and costs about $60 million per year to operate.
The departments of State and Treasury announced sanctions on 120 entities and individuals, across more than 20 countries and jurisdictions, connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The United Kingdom named 14 individuals and entities.
“We are closing the net on the Russian elite and those who try to help them hide their money for war,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement. “There’s no place to hide. We will keep cutting them off from assets they thought were successfully hidden.”
The Treasury Department also cited the International Investment Bank, a Russia-controlled financial institution in Budapest, Hungary. Three current or former executives of the bank — Russian citizens Nikolay Nikolayevich Kosov and Georgy Nugzarovich Potapov as well as Hungary national Imre Laszloczki — were designated for sanctions.
A Treasury Department statement said the bank “enables Russia to increase its intelligence presence in Europe, opens the door for the Kremlin’s malign influence activities in Central Europe and the Western Balkans, and could serve as a mechanism for corruption and illicit finance, including sanctions violations.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted the new sanctions cite the All Russian Children’s and Youth Military Patriotic Public Movement Youth Army, and the State Budgetary Educational Institution of Additional Education of the Republic of Crimea and the Crimea Patriot Center.
Blinken alleged that the two organizations “support Russia’s efforts to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine through the militarization and indoctrination of schoolchildren.”
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