The U.S. has imposed more sanctions, this time against Russian oligarchs, in a bid to hit the ultra-wealthy in that country, according to a Reuters report Thursday (March 3).
This has further elevated the pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine.
The U.S. laid down full blocking sanctions on eight oligarchs and other officials, including Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov and others who’d made big fortunes through connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Usmanov is the founder of the Russian mining company Metallionvest, and the White House said he was a close ally of Putin. The sanctions will block his property from use in the U.S. and by U.S. persons, including his yacht and private jet.
Another target was Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman who the White House has alleged is a “top purveyor” of the propaganda from Putin. Alongside them is, Nikolay Tokarev, chief executive of energy giant Transneft, who was targeted with his wife, daughter and two luxury real estate companies.
In addition, billionaire brothers Boris and Arkady Rotenberg and numerous family members, Igor Shuvalov — a politician and former deputy prime minister to Putin — and financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin were also targeted.
These sanctions are the latest in a wave of actions being taken against Russia, with several banks in the country having been sanctioned earlier this week.
“We want (Putin) to feel the squeeze, we want the people around him to feel the squeeze,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Thursday.
Several Russian companies have been moving to open Chinese bank accounts in order to avoid the sanctions, PYMNTS reported.
Read more: Russian Companies Scramble to Open Chinese Bank Accounts
A source at a Chinese state bank in Moscow said that 200 to 300 companies had been approaching the bank to open accounts.
The report says it’s not clear how wide ranging the demand was among Russian businesses for new accounts, though the source said many companies already do business there and he thought yuan transactions would increase among those companies.
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