Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, both Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov were sanctioned. However, their family and attorneys have been helping them avoid this by continuing business in the UK or relocating money.
New sanctions have been imposed on those assisting Russian oligarchs to continue doing business in the United Kingdom. Such as fixers for Roman Abramovich and former Arsenal FC shareholder Alisher Usmanov.
Mr. Abramovich and Mr. Usmanov, who also had a stake in Everton FC, were both sanctioned in March 2022 as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine the previous month due to their alleged ties to Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, which Mr. Abramovich denies.
Due to the initial sanctions, more than £18 billion in assets belonging to oligarchs were blocked in the United Kingdom.
However, many continued to operate in the United Kingdom through financial fixers, family members, offshore trusts, and phantom corporations.
Since those initial sanctions were imposed more than a year ago, the government has identified and sanctioned several individuals. Who helped oligarchs continue doing business in the UK.
USM Holdings, Mr. Usmanov’s company, and its subsidiaries were sanctioned by the US on Wednesday.
One of the entities is Megafon, one of Russia’s four largest telecommunications corporations, a change from past Western sanctions.
Two Cypriots employed by Messrs. Abramovich and Usmanov are the principal targets of the new British sanctions.
The Foreign Office stated that Demetris Ioannides, a corporate services provider, was responsible for “crafting the murky offshore structures” used to conceal more than £760 million of Mr. Abramovich’s assets before the oligarch was sanctioned last year.
While attorney Christodoulos Vassiliades is “at the center of a web of trusts and offshore companies” connecting Mr. Usmanov and the Sutton Place Estate, the Tudor manor house owned by the Russian near Guildford, Surrey, which was formerly owned by J. Paul Getty.
Curzon Square Limited, which served as Mr. Usmanov’s London office and leaseholder of a 72-room Grade II-listed mansion in Mayfair’s Curzon Square, a short distance from Buckingham Palace, has also been sanctioned.
Three days before the invasion of Ukraine, he transferred Curzon Square Ltd’s stake in the mansion to his business empire. Russia’s largest iron ore producer Metalloinvest.
Since the sanctions were only imposed initially, Curzon Square Ltd. was free to control property interests in London.
The new rules apply to USM, which Mr. Usmanov controls and owns Metalloinvest.
Hanley Limited, an Isle of Man corporation through which Mr. Usmanov purchased the Grade II-listed Beechwood House in Hampstead, north London for £48 million in 2008, has also been sanctioned.
Vladimir and Varvara Skoch, father and daughter of Mr. Usmanov’s business associate Andrei Skoch, were also sanctioned.
We are tightening our grip on the Russian elite.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly stated, “We are tightening the net on the Russian elite. And those who assist them in hiding their war funds.
There is nowhere to escape. We will continue to cut them off from assets they believed were effectively concealed.
Together with our international allies, the United Kingdom will continue to punish those who support the conflict. We will continue until Putin stops.”
In the latest round of measures, family members of other sanctioned oligarchs who, according to the government, are being used as intermediaries to conceal their assets have also been sanctioned.
They include the daughter, son, and wife of Vladimir Evtushankov, the billionaire majority owner and founder of the Russian conglomerate Sistema, which specializes in finance and hotels and was formerly in the aerospace and defense industries.
Gulnara Kerimova, the daughter of billionaire oligarch and Russian politician Suleyman Kerimov, who is a significant shareholder in Gazprom, Uralkali, and Sberbank, has been sanctioned for holding four luxury villas in France on her father’s behalf.
Nariman Gadzhiev, Mr. Kerimov’s nephew, owns a series of shell firms tied to his uncle. Including one that transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to companies connected to Mr. Kerimov.
The new list of sanctioned individuals concludes with Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Putin ally and former Ukrainian politician Victor Medvedchuk, and the proprietor of multiple luxury properties in Crimea.
