The EU added Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich to an asset freeze and travel ban list. Alfa Group shareholders German Khan and Alexey Kuzmichev have also been placed under sanctions. Tigran Khudaverdyan, executive director of Yandex, one of Russia’s leading tech companies, is also blacklisted for being one of the business people with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The UK announced an additional set of sanctions on more than 370 oligarchs, including Mikhail Fridman, co-founder of Alfa-Bank, and Mikhail Mishustin, prime minister of Russia. Vodka imports from Russia will face a 35 percent import tariff in the UK. The UK has also introduced a ban on exports of luxury goods, which is likely to include items such as vehicles, high-end fashion, and works of art.
Other individuals targeted by the UK include Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, and Alexander Ponomarenko, the chair of Sheremetyevo airport who has a fortune estimated to be worth £2.22bn.
In the EU, the economic measures include a ban on transactions with state-owned Russian companies, except in the oil and gas sector. An EU import ban on steel products worth €3.3bn, as well as an EU export ban for luxury goods to Russia, including luxury cars and jewelry, had also been adopted by the bloc, said the commission.
