The UK on Wednesday slapped sanctions on certainly one of Russia’s richest males — an oligarch referred to as “Nickel King” — over Moscow’s greater than four-month-long warfare with Ukraine.
The UK’s newest spherical of sanctions focused billionaire Vladimir Potanin, whom the British authorities described because the “second richest man” in Russia.
Potanin, a mining tycoon and shut ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has a
web value
of $37.1 billion, in line with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“So long as Putin continues his abhorrent assault on Ukraine, we’ll use sanctions to weaken the Russian warfare machine,” a UK authorities spokesperson mentioned in a press release. “At the moment’s sanctions present that nothing and nobody is off the desk, together with Putin’s interior circle.”
Potanin controls the main Russian conglomerate Interros, which has giant stakes in industries together with power, metals, and mining.
The “Nickel King” oligarch “continues to amass wealth as he helps Putin’s regime, buying Rosbank, and shares in Tinkoff Financial institution within the interval since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” the UK mentioned.
Moreover, the UK on Wednesday additionally sanctioned Anna Tsivileva, the president of the Russian coal mining firm, JSC Kolmar Group, who can also be Putin’s first cousin.
“Tsivileva’s husband Sergey Tsivilev is governor of the coal wealthy Kemerovo area and the couple have considerably benefited from their relationship to Putin,” the UK authorities mentioned, including that the mining firm has additionally been sanctioned.
The UK mentioned it’s working to implement new measures to stop Russia from accessing UK trusts providers.
Since Putin launched his unprovoked warfare on Ukraine on February 24, the UK has sanctioned greater than 1,000 individuals and over 100 companies.
“Russian imports have dropped over 40% for the reason that invasion and stockpiles of significant imported manufacturing parts are prone to be depleted within the subsequent three to 6 months,” the UK authorities mentioned.
In the meantime, the UK on Wednesday mentioned it additionally sanctioned a bunch of Russian people and corporations for supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
