Aiming at the closest Putin – VG

The new British sanctions hit the oligarchs and those close to Putin. Many of them have already been severely punished, as well as by other countries.

Britain added, on Tuesday, 350 new Russian citizens to its sanctions lists. Among them are the oligarchs and individuals in the inner circle of Vladimir Putin, as well as their families and collaborators.

Their funds were frozen and they were denied entry to Britain as a result of Russia’s brutal attack on neighboring Ukraine.

“We are going further and faster than ever before to hit the people closest to Putin,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told Reuters.

These are among those who ended up on the British list:

• Dmitry Medvedev (56) – Former President and Prime Minister of Russia. One of Putin’s closest. Under the constitution, Putin could not be reelected president in 2008, but Medvedev kept the presidency warm for him for four years.
• Sergei Shoigu (66) – Putin’s defense minister since 2012. He has been the head of the Russian Civil Defense since 1991, and defense minister since 1994. Part of Putin’s security bloc the United Russia bloc believes that more money should be spent on the military.

• Mikhail Friedman (57 years old) – according to Forbes, he is good for about 120 billion crowns. He was born in Lviv in western Ukraine and was a critic of the war. He is still on the sanctions list. Friedman is the man behind Russia’s largest private bank, Alpha Bank. It also owns a large supermarket chain.
• Maria Zakharova (46) – spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry. Previously, he worked as a journalist and diplomat. During the invasion of Ukraine, baseless accusations were leveled against both Ukraine and Germany. It has claimed that both countries are Nazis.

• Bgör Avin (66) – Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Alpha Group and former Russian Minister of Trade. Forbes thinks it’s good for 44 billion kroner. It is relatively unknown in public, but according to the European Union he meets with President Putin “regularly”.
• Andrei Melnichenko (50) – According to Forbes, his fortune in 2016 was more than ten billion dollars and he was ranked 11th in the list of the richest man in Russia. He’s visited Norway several times on his luxury boats, and in 2016 built what was when completed the world’s largest sailboat: Monster Yachting «A sailing yacht».

damned few

Russian oligarchs in London are known for buying expensive luxury real estate, where they often stay part of the year, for which the British capital has been nicknamed “London Class”.

This practice has been criticized for inflating housing prices in the city, which are already very high.

The term oligarchy is used about those who made a fortune by exploiting the privatization that took place after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Many of them have close relations with Vladimir Putin.

On Monday, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that a group of anarchists stormed what is supposed to be the palace of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, which is located in central London.

The group calls itself the “Anarchist Action Network”. From the balcony hung several banners.

“By occupying this house, we show our solidarity with the Ukrainian people, as well as with the Russian people against madness,” the group said in a statement. BBC.

The European Union and Japan in the field

The European Union on Tuesday also adopted new sanctions against Russia, Danish news agency Ritzau reported.

Sanctions target Russia’s military and steel industry, and new investments in Russian energy. In addition, the European Union bans the export of luxury products such as sports cars and jewelry – to strike at the Russian elite: the oligarchs.

Many of these powerful Russians were also put on their own sanctions lists.

“These sanctions will increase economic pressure on the Kremlin and harm Russia’s ability to finance the invasion of Ukraine,” a European Commission press release said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Russian forces in Ukraine directly during a speech on Tuesday night:

On the same day, the Japanese Ministry of Finance announced that it would also impose new sanctions on 17 Russian citizens – including billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk. Japan, the world’s third largest economy, says it will join other G7 nations.

– Regarding the new sanctions, we will continue to follow developments, said Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi. Japan also stopped exporting technology products to Russia.