US sanctions Putin’s “front man”, his spokesman and other Russian oligarchs

United States announced this Thursday sanctions to eight oligarchs russians and their relatives, including the alleged “figurehead” of the president Vladimir PutinAlisher Usmanov, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov.

The State Department also banned 19 Russian oligarchs and their relatives from entering the United States, while the Treasury blocked the potential assets under US jurisdiction of seven Russian organizations and 26 individuals promoting “disinformation” about the war in Ukraine.

“We continue to impose very harsh sanctions on Putin and those around him,” said the president of the United States, Joe Biden, in remarks to the press at the beginning of a meeting with his cabinet.

The new restrictions seek to make the list of oligarchs sanctioned by the United States overlap as much as possible with the one announced on Monday by the European Union (EU), and Biden’s spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, stressed that even more will be added in the coming days. names to the list.

The main difference between the European and the American sanctions is that the latter also affect the families of the oligarchs, because Washington wants to prevent as much as possible that these elites transfer their wealth to others.

Usmanov, whom the EU considers the “figurehead” Putin, is a metal tycoon and one of the richest men in Russia and the world, with a fortune currently estimated by Forbes at more than $14 billion.

German authorities on Wednesday seized a superyacht valued at nearly $600 million that was owned by Usmanov, and the Treasury on Thursday banned the use in the United States of that boat and a huge private plane of the tycoon, valued at up to $500. millions.

Along with Usmanov and Peskov, Nikolai Tokarev, CEO of Transneft, a major Russian oil and gas company, also appears on the list, and two real estate companies he owns, as well as his wife and daughter, are sanctioned.

Another of those sanctioned is Sergey Chémezov, director of Rostec, parent company of the largest Russian arms exporter (Rosoboronexport); along with his wife, his son and his stepdaughter.

In addition, Yevgeny Prigozhin appears, nicknamed as the “Chef” of Putin because his catering companies usually organize the Kremlin banquets, and that he was already subject to US sanctions but that the Treasury redesignates to also include his three companies and his family.

There are also two other friends of Putin already sanctioned by Washington, Boris and Arkadi Rotenberg, as well as their relatives; Along with former Russian Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, his five companies, his wife, his children and their companies.

However, two figures that are on the EU list do not appear on the Treasury sanctions list: businessmen Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman, of whom the latter owned the Dia supermarket chain until his resignation on Tuesday. .

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