Alina Maratovna Kabaeva, who has been romantically linked to the Russian chief, was sanctioned “for being or having been a leader, official, senior executive officer, or member of the board of directors of the Government of the Russian Federation,” a Treasury Department assertion mentioned.
That assertion describes the 39-year-old Kabaeva as having “a close relationship to Putin.” She is a former member of the State Duma “and is the current head of the National Media Group, a pro-Kremlin empire of television, radio, and print organizations.”
In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that sanctioning Kabaeva was into account by the US, however there was concern that such a transfer would inflame tensions given her shut proximity to Putin.
Kabaeva was beforehand sanctioned by the European Union and the United Kingdom.
In addition to Kabaeva, the Treasury Department introduced sanctions towards numerous different oligarchs, a significant metal manufacturing firm and two of its subsidiaries in addition to a monetary establishment accused of working a sanctions evasion operation and its common director.
Separately, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken introduced sanctions on three oligarchs, a Russian state-owned firm overseen by the Ministry of Transportation, “four individuals and one entity illegitimately operating in Ukraine’s territory in collaboration with Russia,” and 24 Russian protection and technology-related entities.
The US can be imposing visa restrictions on 893 Russian Federation officers and “31 foreign government officials who have acted to support Russia’s purported annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine and thereby threatened or violated Ukraine’s sovereignty,” Blinken mentioned.
Many of the designations introduced by the US goal oligarchs who have been beforehand sanctioned by allies just like the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the European Union. They come because the warfare in Ukraine has entered its sixth month.
‘Opulent life’
“As innocent people suffer from Russia’s illegal war of aggression, Putin’s allies have enriched themselves and funded opulent lifestyles,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen mentioned in a press release. “The Treasury Department will use every tool at our disposal to make sure that Russian elites and the Kremlin’s enablers are held accountable for their complicity in a war that has cost countless lives.”
The oligarchs sanctioned by the State Department Tuesday are Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, Alexander Anatolevich Ponomarenko, and Dmitry Aleksandrovich Pumpyanskiy. The yacht AXIOMA was recognized as blocked property during which Pumpyanskiy has an curiosity, the State Department mentioned in a reality sheet.
According to that reality sheet, Ponomarenko “is an oligarch with close ties to other oligarchs and the construction of Vladimir Putin’s seaside palace” who has beforehand been sanctioned by the UK, EU, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Among the oligarchs sanctioned by the Treasury Department Tuesday is Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, the Russian billionaire founding father of the chemical firm “PhosAgro” and former authorities official described by the Treasury as “a known close associate” of Putin. He can be sanctioned by the UK, and in keeping with the US Treasury, he “owns the Witanhurst estate, which is the second largest estate in London after Buckingham Palace.”
The Treasury Department on Tuesday recognized the yacht Alfa Nero, reportedly owned by AG Guryev, as blocked property.
AG Guryev’s son, Andrey Andreevich Guryev, was additionally sanctioned by the US Tuesday, after beforehand being sanctioned by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Switzerland, and the UK, as was his funding agency Dzhi AI Invest OOO.
Natalya Valeryevna Popova was sanctioned “for operating or having operated in the technology sector of the Russian Federation economy, and for being or having been a leader, official, senior executive officer, or member of the board of directors of LLC VEB Ventures,” which is a sanctioned entity. She was additionally sanctioned for being the spouse of Kirill Aleksandrovich Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Both he and the RDIF have been sanctioned within the days following the beginning of the warfare.
The Joint Stock Company Promising Industrial and Infrastructure Technologies, “a financial institution owned by the Russian Federal Agency for State Property Management,” and its General Director Anton Sergeevich Urusov have been sanctioned Tuesday in relation to alleged sanctions evasion.
According to the Treasury Department, “JSC PPIT attempted to facilitate the circumvention of sanctions imposed on the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).”
The Treasury Department sanctioned Publichnoe Aktsionernoe Obschestvo Magnitogorskiy Metallurgicheskiy Kombinat (MMK), described as “one of the world’s largest steel producers,” the chairman of its board of administrators Viktor Filippovich Rashnikov — who has additionally been sanctioned by Australia, Canada, the EU, Switzerland, and the UK — and two of MMK’s subsidiaries.
“MMK is one of Russia’s largest taxpayers, providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation,” the Treasury Department mentioned. The company has licensed a wind-down interval for transactions with MMK and certainly one of its subsidiaries.