Navalny Urges Systematic Sanctions Against Russian Oligarchs

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday called for systematic punitive measures against Russian oligarchs supporting Russia's President Vladimir Putin and his military operation in Ukraine.

In a lengthy social media post, he said that Western sanctions -- by the United States, European Union or the United Kingdom -- have only targeted 46 of the Forbes list of Russia's 200 richest people. 

"That doesn't sound very much like an all-out war on Putin's oligarchs to me," Navalny said.

According to him, the head of Russian gas giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller, was still not on the EU sanctions list.

Navalny said that famed Russian oligarch -- and former Chelsea football club owner -- Roman Abramovich had so far escaped US sanctions, despite his companies "supplying metal to the Russian defence ministry".

"We can't expect a split among Putin's elite on the issue of war if, despite a lot of chatter, we still don't use the stick against them, while allowing them to keep all their carrots," he said.

"I call on all voters and legislators in the EU, UK, US and Canada to put pressure on the executive branch and force them to stop engaging in demagoguery and urgently get down to massive personal sanctions against Putin's thieves."

He also suggested that the European Union, United States and United Kingdom ban anyone supporting the Russian military offensive in Ukraine from their soil "for 20 years".

Navalny is serving a nine-year prison sentence in a penal colony near the Russian town of Vladimir on embezzlement charges that he and his allies say are politically motivated.

But he has continued to pass on messages to his lawyers.

Navalny, 46, rose to prominence as an anti-corruption blogger and, before his imprisonment, mobilised anti-government protests across Russia.

In 2020, he barely survived a poisoning attack that he has blamed on the Russian authorities, but in which the Kremlin has denied any involvement.

He was arrested last year on his return from treatment in Germany, sparking widespread condemnation abroad.

His anti-corruption organisation has drafted a list of more than 6,000 officials it accuses of backing the Russian operation in neighbouring Ukraine.

Source https://www.globalcourant.com/navalny-urges-systematic-sanctions-against-russian-oligarchs/?feed_id=11833&_unique_id=62fc16f662445

U.S. Sanctions Putin 'Girlfriend,' More Oligarchs for 'Complicity' in Ukraine War

The United States blacklisted Russian President Vladimir Putin's purported girlfriend and the tycoon owner of the second-largest estate in London on Tuesday in the latest round of sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.

Also hit with U.S. business bans were several other oligarchs believed to be close to Putin, four officials Russia has named to administer occupied territories in Ukraine, and around two dozen high technology institutes and companies, including key state-backed electronics entities.

The U.S. Treasury announced sanctions on Putin associate and billionaire Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, who owns the Witanhurst estate, the second-largest estate in London after Buckingham Palace. 

Guryev is the founder and former deputy chairman of PhosAgro, a major supplier to global fertilizer markets.

He and his son were hit with financial sanctions, which ban U.S. businesses — including banks with U.S. branches — from transactions with them, and freeze their assets under U.S. jurisdictions.

The Treasury also blacklisted Guryev's Caribbean-based 81-meter (267 feet) yacht Alfa Nero, which puts it at risk of seizure.

However, the Treasury said Alfa Nero "has reportedly shut off its location tracking hardware in order to avoid seizure."

The Treasury also imposed sanctions on Alina Kabaeva, a former Olympic gymnast widely described as Putin's girlfriend, and Natalya Popova, the wife of Kirill Dmitriev, the manager of the Russian government's massive sovereign wealth fund. 

The Treasury said Popova works for the technology firm Innopraktika, which is run by one of Putin's daughters.

"As innocent people suffer from Russia's illegal war of aggression, Putin's allies have enriched themselves and funded opulent lifestyles," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. 

"The Treasury Department will use every tool at our disposal to make sure that Russian elites and the Kremlin's enablers are held accountable for their complicity in a war that has cost countless lives," Yellen said.

Viktor Filippovich Rashnikov, one of Russia's largest taxpayers, and two subsidiaries of his MMK, which is among the world's largest steel producers, also were hit with sanctions.

In a joint action, the State Department imposed sanctions, including visa restrictions, on oligarchs "running massive revenue-generating companies," including Dmitry Aleksandrovich Pumpyanskiy, Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko and Alexander Anatolevich Ponomarenko. 

In addition, nearly 900 Russian officials were placed on a U.S. visa ban list, as were 31 unnamed non-Russian officials who have supported Russia's occupation of Crimea, the State Department said.

"Today, the United States is taking additional actions to ensure that the Kremlin and its enablers feel the compounding effects of our response to the Kremlin's unconscionable war of aggression," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

Source https://www.globalcourant.com/u-s-sanctions-putin-girlfriend-more-oligarchs-for-complicity-in-ukraine-war/?feed_id=5846&_unique_id=62e9d6aecfd15

French Prosecutors Open Probe into Russian Oligarchs: Legal Source

French prosecutors have opened an investigation into the assets owned by Russian oligarchs, a legal source said on Monday.

The probe is expected to look into possible money laundering and corruption.

The investigation, first reported by the Parisien newspaper, comes after anti-graft group Transparency International filed a legal complaint against oligarchs in France in May. 

France has frozen Russian-owned assets worth billions of euros since the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine in February, including luxury yachts, ski chalets and property.

The country's Mediterranean coast, high-end ski resorts and Parisian real estate market have long been favoured destinations for Russian cash for investment and leisure.

"The ambitions of the sanctions regime against Russia and the first asset seizures are running into difficulties in identifying the assets owned by sanctioned individuals," Transparency International France said in a statement last month.

"In France, as elsewhere, the hunt for goods owned by oligarchs and others close to the Russian regime is at a standstill," it added as it filed its legal case. 

The French government has said it faces serious difficulties in identifying and seizing assets that are often owned by overseas shell companies. 

Transparency International said it had "drawn up an inventory of real estate assets in France of several oligarchs and people close to the Russian regime".

It said it possessed evidence of how the money used to pay for them came from illicit sources. 

European Union countries have frozen assets worth 13.8 billion euros ($14.1 billion) linked to sanctioned Russian and Belarusian individuals, according to figures from July 12. 

The EU has so far adopted six sanction packages against Russia, including a ban on most Russian oil imports that was approved in early June.

The French probe will be led by specialised investigators at the Central Office for the Repression of Major Financial Crime, part of the National Financial Prosecutors' Office. 

Source https://www.globalcourant.com/french-prosecutors-open-probe-into-russian-oligarchs-legal-source/?feed_id=1982&_unique_id=62ded9dc4a2a0