U.S. Sanctions Usmanov, Prigozhin Among Russian Elites

(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration moved to sanction eight wealthy Russians and their families and impose visa restrictions on several dozen others as the U.S. and its allies seek to raise pressure on the elites around President Vladimir Putin in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

The sanctioned Russians include: Alisher Usmanov, as well as his superyacht and private plane; Nikolay Tokarev and his wife and daughter; Boris Rotenberg and his wife and sons; Arkady Rotenberg and his sons and daughter; Sergey Chemezov and his wife, son and stepdaughter; Igor Shuvalov and his wife, son, daughter and companies connected to them; Yevgeny Prigozhin and his wife, daughter and son; and Dmitry Peskov, Putin's press secretary.

“We continue to impose very severe economic sanctions on Putin and all those folks around him, choking off access to technology as well as cutting off access to the global financial system,” President Joe Biden said Thursday. “It's had a profound impact already.”

Sanctions Imposed on Russia by U.S., EU, U.K. and Others

Prigozhin, sometimes called “Putin's chef,” was already under U.S. sanctions for his alleged role leading the Internet Research Agency, which American authorities have said was a troll farm responsible for interfering in the 2016 U.S. election to try to benefit Donald Trump's campaign.

An additional 19 Russians and 47 of their family members will be subject to U.S. visa restrictions. They weren't identified in the statement.

The sanctions are in keeping with measures the European Union imposed on Feb. 28, according to people familiar with the plans who asked not to be identified in advance of the announcement.

But the U.S. restrictions are broader, prohibiting the tycoons' travel to the U.S. and also targeting their families to prevent them from transferring assets to spouses or children, a tactic that's been used in the past to evade sanctions.

The moves are the latest effort by the administration to turn the screws on Putin and his inner circle following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last week. On Wednesday, the U.S Justice Department announced a task force to enforce sanctions and export restrictions and to seize luxury assets belonging to Russia's wealthiest citizens.

The administration believes that if the tycoons are put under financial strain, they may distance themselves from Putin and possibly pressure him to stop the war in Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Europe announced sanctions on several wealthy Russians including metals tycoon Usmanov, Alfa Group owners Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, plus Alexey Mordashov, who controls a major steel company. Some had already been under sanction over Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014.

French authorities said they stopped Rosneft chief executive officer Igor Sechin's superyacht from leaving port on the Cote D'Azur on Thursday. Usmanov and others have lambasted the sanctions as unfair and illegal.

There is no discussion in the U.S. and EU about what Russian oligarchs or officials would need to do in order to be removed from sanctions lists, according to two senior Western officials. A senior Biden administration official said the U.S. is focused on holding what it regards as a kleptocracy to account for the Ukraine invasion.

The business leaders and other elites targeted with sanctions and travel restrictions are part of the Russian regime and play an important role in the Russian state, a senior EU official said.

The U.S. government is working with Europe and the U.K. to identify, hunt down and seize assets, the U.S. official said.

The U.S. on Feb. 24 announced sanctions against Putin, his foreign minister, some national security aides and top executives of some of Russia's biggest banks and state-owned entities, as well as Sechin. But it had so far held off imposing sanctions on the broader circle of billionaires who accumulated vast wealth by snapping up privatized Russian companies for bottom-basement prices in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Many of those oligarchs had thrown in their lot with Putin in recent years. But several have offered hints in recent days that they're looking to distance themselves from the war, though none have condemned Putin directly.