US President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday took a series of actions targeting Russian elites – including many with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin – in its latest effort to punish the Kremlin over the ongoing war in Ukraine. In a statement, the Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions against a number of oligarchs, a major steel company and two of its subsidiaries, as well as a financial institution accused of running a sanctions-busting business and its chief executive. Separately, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions against three oligarchs, a Russian state-owned company overseen by Russia’s Transport Ministry, “four individuals and one entity operating illegally on the territory of Ukraine in cooperation with Russia” and 24 Russian defense and technology-related entities. The US is also imposing visa restrictions on 893 officials of the Russian Federation and “31 foreign government officials who acted to support Russia’s alleged annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and thereby threatened or violated Ukraine’s sovereignty,” it said Blinken. Many of the designations announced by the US target oligarchs previously sanctioned by allies such as the UK, Australia, Canada and the European Union. The actions come as the war in Ukraine approaches its sixth month. “As innocent people suffer from Russia’s illegal war of aggression, Putin’s allies have enriched themselves and funded lavish lifestyles,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. “The Treasury Department will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that Russian elites and Kremlin officials are held accountable for their complicity in a war that has cost countless lives.” The oligarchs sanctioned by the State Department on Tuesday are Andrei Igorevich Melnichenko, Alexander Anatolyevich Ponomarenko and Dmitry Alexandrovich Pubyansky. The Axioma yacht was identified as foreclosed property in which Pumpyanskiy has an interest, the State Department said in a news release. According to this fact sheet, Ponomarenko “is an oligarch with close ties to other oligarchs and the construction of Vladimir Putin’s seaside palace” who has been sanctioned in the past by the UK, EU, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Among the oligarchs sanctioned by the Treasury Department on Tuesday is Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, the Russian billionaire founder of chemical company PhosAgro and a former government official described by the Treasury Department as a “known close associate” of Putin. He has also been sanctioned by the UK, and according to the US Treasury, “he owns the Witanhurst estate, which is the second largest estate in London after Buckingham Palace”. The US Treasury Department on Tuesday recognized the Alfa Nero yacht, allegedly owned by AG Guryev, as foreclosed property. Another close Putin ally, Alina Maratovna Kabaeva, was punished on Tuesday. Kabaeva is a former member of the State Duma and the current head of the National Media Group, “an empire of pro-Kremlin television, radio and print organizations.” According to the Treasury, “it has also been sanctioned by the EU and the UK”. AG Guryev’s son Andrey Andreevich Guryev was also sanctioned by the US on Tuesday, after previously being sanctioned by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Switzerland and the UK, as was his investment company Dzhi AI Invest OOO. Natalya Valeryevna Popova was sanctioned “for operation or activity in the technological sector of the economy of the Russian Federation and for being or being a leader, official, senior executive or board member of LLC VEB Ventures,” which is a sanctioned entity. She was also sanctioned for being the wife of Kirill Aleksandrovich Dmitriev, the managing director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Both he and the RDIF were sanctioned in the days following the start of the war. Joint Stock Company Promising Industrial and Infrastructure Technologies, “a financial institution belonging to the Russian Federal Service for State Property Management” and its General Director Anton Sergeevich Urusov were imposed sanctions on Tuesday in connection with alleged tax evasion. According to the Ministry of Finance, “JSC PPIT attempted to facilitate the circumvention of sanctions imposed on the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).” The Finance Ministry has sanctioned Publichnoe Aktsionernoe Obschestvo Magnitogorskiy Metallurgicheskiy Kombinat (MMK), described as “one of the world’s largest steel producers,” board chairman Viktor Filippovich Rashnikov — who has also been sanctioned by Australia, Canada , the EU. Switzerland and the United Kingdom — and two of MMK’s subsidiaries. “MMK is one of Russia’s largest taxpayers, providing a significant source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation,” the finance ministry said. The agency has approved a clearing period for transactions with MMK and one of its subsidiaries.
