No more grands crus classés, high-end champagne, truffles, jewellery, diamonds, cigars, branded clothes, smartphones or large sedans bound for Russia: new European sanctions targeting Russia have entered Effective Tuesday, March 15. They are listed in a long list – fourteen pages – published in the Official Journal of the European Union (EU).
The ban on these exports which, according to the Commission, represent 3.5 billion euros annually, is aimed above all at the oligarchs of the regime. Fifteen of them, magnates of industry, finance and the media saw their names added to the list of 862 personalities targeted by the three previous trains of restrictive measures decided by the Union, following the war in Ukraine triggered by President Vladimir Putin. Their assets are frozen, they are banned from entering the Union and no European can make funds available to them.
The most famous of the oligarchs in the crosshairs of the EU is the multi-billionaire Roman Abramovich, owner of the steel and mining group Evraz and, for nineteen years, of the London football club Chelsea. His assets had already been frozen by the British government. “He had privileged access to the president [russe] and maintained very good contacts with him. This relationship with the Russian ruler helped him preserve his considerable wealth”note it Official newspaper.
Other businessmen targeted by the Union because they provide considerable income to the Putin regime include German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev, shareholders of Alfa Group, the country’s largest investment company. Viktor Rashnikov, owner of the steel producer MMK, is also targeted, as well as Vladimir Rashevsky, leader of EuroChem Group, a global fertilizer producer, present in 40 countries – including France -, and Suleyman Kerimov, owner of the oil group Nafta Moskva. Konstantin Ernst, CEO of Pervy Kannal (“Channel One”) television, is meanwhile among those accused of spreading the Kremlin’s biased discourse on the war in Ukraine.
The energy sector generally spared
The absence of a name, that of Oleg Deripaska, is surprising. Especially since the founder of Basic Element, one of the largest Russian industrial groups, and leader of the aluminum giant Rusal has already been sanctioned by the United Kingdom. “Each country has its reasons and takes into account the assets that are located in it”explains a Brussels source.
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