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DEAfter Russian troops invaded the territory of sovereign Ukraine on 24 February 2022, a number of countries have imposed restrictive measures on individuals and companies involved in military aggression. The main type of restrictive measure on all analysed sanctions lists is the freezing of assets of individuals and legal entities. All restrictive measures are currently in force for an indefinite period. Analysts at the R&D YouControl centre analysed the sanctions lists introduced by the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and Japan, as well as the sanctions imposed by the European Union.
Thus, a total of just over 900 individuals are on the sanctions lists. In particular, the sanctions lists of the EU, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain include more than 300 members of the State Duma of the Russian Federation who voted for the recognition of the ‘DPR’ and ‘LPR.’ And on 9 March, the EU added to the sanctions list 146 more members of the Russian Federation Council who had ratified the “Agreements on Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance between the Russian Federation and the ‘DPR’ and between the Russian Federation and the ‘LPR’.”
Personal sanctions were also imposed on Putin and foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
In addition to Russian government officials, the sanctions list covers Russian oligarchs, including Mikhail Fridman (on the EU sanctions list from 28 February 2022, on the sanctions list of Australia from 14 March 2022), Alisher Usmanov (on all analysed lists), Alexei Mordashov (on the EU sanctions list from 28 February 2022, on the sanctions list of Australia from 14 March 2022), Oleg Deripaska (on the sanctions list of Canada from 06 March 2022, on the sanctions list of Great Britain from 10 March 2022), Roman Abramovich (on the sanctions list of Great Britain and Canada from 10 March 2022, on the sanctions list of Australia from 14 March 2022, on the EU sanctions list from 15 February 2022) and Putin’s closest allies: brothers Arkadiy and Boris Rotenbergs, Yuri Kovalchuk, as well as members of their families, Gennady Timchenko (on the sanctions list of Great Britain from 22 February 2022, on the EU sanctions list from 28 February 2022, on Japan’s sanctions list from 08 March 2022). Yevgeniy Prigozhyn and members of his family are also on the sanctions list.
The Government of Japan expanded the sanctions list to cover more than 50 members of the so-called “LPR” and “DPR” governments, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenka, his sons Dmitry and Viktor, and Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
Media
The sanctions lists also cover journalists and TV presenters. In particular, TV presenter on Rossiya 1 TV channel Vladimir Solovyov (EU, Canada, Australia, and Japan); RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan (EU, Canada); Konstantin Knirik, head of the NewFront propaganda news agency (USA, EU, Canada); Konstantin Ernst, director general of Channel One Russia (Canada); and Belarusian journalists Igor Tur and Liudmila Gladkaya (Canada).
Moreover, on 24 March, Canada added four citizens of Ukraine to its sanctions list: Taras Kozak, member of the Parliament of Ukraine of the 8th and the 9th convocations, who is already on the US and Ukraine’s sanctions lists and is a participant and beneficiary of more than 20 Ukrainian companies, including 112, ZIK, and NewsOne TV channels.
Banks
Russian banks were included in the analysed sanctions lists, in particular Rossiya, Promsvyazbank, Genbank, Industrial Savings Bank, Novikombank, VTB Bank, which is a shareholder of the Ukrainian bank of the same name JSC VTB Bank, and the corporation WEB.RF. The United States also added a significant number of companies associated with the above banks to the sanctions list, and Ukrainian JSC Prominvestbank was added to the list.
The main type of restrictive measure on all analysed sanctions lists is the freezing of assets of legal entities. However, US sanctions also provide for sectoral restrictions on dozens of legal entities.
In addition, on 24 February 2022, the United States expanded sanctions against PJSC Gazprom. In addition to a freeze on the company’s assets, a ban on transactions, financing, and other transactions with debt with a maturity of more than 14 days or new equity was added if such debt or new equity was issued on 22 March 2022 and after that date. Alexei Miller, Chairman of the Board of PJSC Gazprom, was also sanctioned by Great Britain, Canada, and Australia.
Companies
In addition to the banking sector companies, the Government of Canada added about 30 Russian companies operating in the field of mechanical engineering, including aircraft manufacturing, as well as the Ministry of Defence, and the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, to the sanctions list on 10 March 2022.
On 15 March 2022, the European Union imposed sanctions on about 90 Russian companies, including a ban on all economic ties with 10 major companies of Russia’s defence industry, as well as oil and gas companies, but the wording allows buying oil and gas if there is a crucial need. Restrictions on other companies on the list apply to the prohibition of direct or indirect sales, supply, transfer or export of dual-use items and technologies.
Natalia Tolub
