US imposes sanctions on Kremlin oligarchs, officials, including Putin’s son-in-law, Interior Minister


On April 6, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in consultation with the Department of State, designated seven Russian oligarchs and 12 companies they own or control, 17 senior Russian government officials, and a state-owned Russian weapons trading company and its subsidiary, a Russian bank.

“The Russian government operates for the disproportionate benefit of oligarchs and government elites. The Russian government engages in a range of malign activity around the globe, including continuing to occupy Crimea and instigate violence in eastern Ukraine, supplying the Assad regime with material and weaponry as they bomb their own civilians, attempting to subvert Western democracies, and malicious cyber activities. Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities, ” said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin.

All assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction of the designated individuals and entities, and of any other entities blocked by operation of law as a result of their ownership by a sanctioned party, are frozen, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealings with them. Additionally, non-U.S. persons could face sanctions for knowingly facilitating significant transactions for or on behalf of the individuals or entities blocked.

Today’s action targets a number of the individuals, including those who ‘benefit from the Putin regime and play a key role in advancing Russia’s malign activities’, such as Russia’s alum king Oleg Deripaska, who has recently been involved in the high-profile sex and corruption scandal, Putin’s alleged son-in-law Kirill Shamalov, notorious Suleiman Kerimov, who was arrested on suspicion of laundering funds in France and then released, etc.

“Shamalov married Putin’s daughter Katerina Tikhonova in February 2013 and his fortunes drastically improved following the marriage; within 18 months, he acquired a large portion of shares of Sibur, a Russia-based company involved in oil and gas exploration, production, processing, and refining,” the statement reads.

Gazprom CEO and official of the Government of the Russian Federation Alexey Miller, President of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS) Mikhail Fradkov, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Putin’s aide Evgeniy Shkolov and others are also on today’s list.

On April 5, a number of influential Western media outlets reported that the U.S. planned to sanction Russian oligarchs under a law targeting Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

In January 2018, the U.S. identified 96 of Russia’s richest people as ‘oligarchs’ and 114 top government figures in lists mandated under last year’s Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), adding pressure over alleged Kremlin interference in the 2016 presidential vote,

CAATSA, a U.S. federal law that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea, and Russia, was signed by President Donald Trump in August, 2017.

belsat.eu, following treasury.gov

 

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