The UK has targeted individuals and companies accused of acting as “financial intermediaries” on behalf of Russian businessmen Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov as part of the latest round of sanctions against Moscow over its war in Ukraine.
The UK Foreign Office said in a statement today that the new measures target those helping two high-profile businessmen avoid the full cost of financial sanctions.
“We are closing the network to the Russian elite and those who are trying to help them save their money because of the war,” Secretary of State James Cleverley said in a statement. “We will continue to exclude them from assets that they believe they have successfully hidden.”
The government has announced sanctions against the Cypriots Dimitris Ioannidis and Christodoulos Vassiliadis, whom it calls “professional passive accomplices” who facilitated the creation of offshore companies and trusts.
According to London, the former was behind the offshore companies that Roman Abramovich used to hide £760m (€863m) before sanctions were imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of February 2022.
The UK has frozen billions of British pounds in assets and imposed sanctions on more than 1,550 Russians and 180 organizations over the past year to punish Moscow for the conflict it has caused in Europe and prevent it from continuing.
According to the statement, the latest sanctions also target Usmanov’s financial network, which includes the diversified USM Curzon Square Ltd, which operated as his London office, and Hanley Ltd.
“We consider the UK sanctions imposed against USM Holdings and its shareholders to be unfair and unreasonable,” USM said in a statement, adding that it intends to challenge the restrictions as “unlawful.”
“Alisher Usmanov has not been engaged in entrepreneurial activity for a long time,” the report says.
The UK, which froze the assets of Abramovich and Usmanov last year, said the measures would ensure that Usmanov’s assets, including the £90 million Beechwood House in London, remained under sanctions.
London has imposed sanctions on assets worth 18 billion British pounds (20.4 billion euros) since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Source: APE-MPE, AFP, Reuters.
Source: Kathimerini
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