The Biden administration announced a new round of economic sanctions on Russian elites and businesses linked to President Vladimir Putin as the United States seeks to level new costs on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
The actions detailed by the Treasury Department on Thursday target a “Kremlin-aligned” yacht brokerage, several prominent Russian government officials, and Sergei Roldugin, a close Putin associate and money manager, and the custodian of Putin’s offshore wealth, according to leaked documents. Roldugin, a prominent cellist, is also the godfather to Putin’s eldest daughter.
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The department sanctioned additional Russian government officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Yuryevich Grigorenko, Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev, Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshentnikov, Construction, Housing, and Utilities Minister Irek Envarovich Faizullin, and Yury Slyusar, the president of a Russian state-owned aircraft company.
New State Department sanctions target five Russian oligarchs and elites, including billionaires Alexey Mordashov, God Nisanov, and Evgeny Novitsky, as well as Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Commerce Department is also adding 71 Russian and Belorussian entities to a list of sanctions targets designed to restrict Russia’s ability to develop and secure military technology. During a recent hearing, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Ukraine had reported finding Russian military equipment “filled with semiconductors that they took out of dishwashers and refrigerators,” evidence of the success of earlier export restrictions.
The White House said in a statement that the latest measures are designed to “crack down on evasion and tighten our sanctions to enhance enforcement and increase pressure on Putin and his enablers.”
The Treasury Department will also go after yachts and aircraft with ties to Russian elites, including the Russia-flagged Graceful and Cayman Islands-flagged Olympia, as “blocked property in which President Vladimir Putin has an interest.”
Putin has taken numerous trips on these yachts, as early as last year, the Treasury Department said.
The sanctions target two other yachts, the Shellest and Nega, owned by Russian firms.
“Shellest periodically travels to the coast where President Putin’s infamous Black Sea Palace is located, and President Putin uses Nega for travel in Russia’s North,” the department said in a statement.
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OFAC is additionally targeting a yacht brokerage, Imperial Yachts, for its ties to prominent oligarchs, some of whom offer superyachts for charter through the firm to generate income, the Biden administration said.
“Russia’s elites, up to and including President Putin, rely on complex support networks to hide, move, and maintain their wealth and luxury assets,” said Brian Nelson, the undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. “Today’s action demonstrates that Treasury can and will go after those responsible for shielding and maintaining these ill-gotten interests. We will continue to enforce our sanctions and expose the corrupt systems by which President Putin and his elites enrich themselves.”
