In response to the atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine, and its ongoing invasion, the U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took decisive steps to block Russia’s access to international markets, designating “main arteries” of the Russian economy, its largest public and private banks; numerous members of Russia’s Security Council as orchestrators of war, and family members of Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov.
Sberbank and Alfa-Bank
The U.S. Treasury imposed full blocking sanctions on the Public Joint Stock Company Sberbank of Russia, the largest bank and financial institution in the country that is central to the economy of the Russian federation.
With its majority owned by the Government of Russian Federation, Sberbank possesses a third of all bank assets in Russia and closing its access to the global markets will strangle Putin’s ability to replenish his war chest.
The Treasury had first sanctioned Sberbank back in September 2014, pursuant to an Executive Order 13662, and later identified the bank as a subject of prohibitions on February 24, 202 under Executive Order 14024. – “the Russia-related CAPTA Directive” and the “Russia-related Entities Directive” over operating as a part of the financial services sector of the Russian Federation Economy.
The new, expanded sanctions targeting Sberbank will be built on the Executive Order 14024, and they will be designating 42 Sberbank subsidiaries, including real estate, security brokering, fund management companies and mutual and pension funds and trusts controlled by Sberbank, some of which are operating beyond Russian borders in countries such as Austria, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, or Luxembourg.
The entities owned 50 percent or more by Sberbank, directly or indirectly, are subjected to the blocking order under the EO, even if not publicly designated by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC.
OFAC has also expanded previous sanctions designations targeting Russia’s largest privately owned, and fourth largest financial institution, Joint Stock Company Alfa-Bank along with it six subsidiaries, and five vessels it owned. The subsidiaries of Alfa-Bank is distributed across other countries, and offer a variety of financial services; the vessels, on the other hand, are mostly tankers carrying oil or cargo ships.
Family Members of Putin and Lavrov, sanctioned
OFAC has also sanctioned family members of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova (Tikhonova) and Maria Vladimirovna Vorontsova, both daughters of Russian President Putin, are in charge of tech organizations and genetics research programmes, respectively. The programs and organizations they oversee are closely linked to the Government of Russia and its defence industry, being funnelled billions of dollars from the Kremlin.
Tikhonova and Vorontsova are both designated on grounds of being adult children of Putin.
The Treasury has also sanctioned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife Maria Aleksandrovna Lavrova and his daughter Yekaterina Sergeyevna Vinokurova.
“Architects of War”: Further members of the Russian Security Council including former President Medvedev
The United States has already sanctioned several members of Russia’s Security Council in the wake of Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine in late February.
The sanctioned state figures included Putin, Lavrov, Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov, Special Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology, and Transport Sergei Ivanov, State Duma deputy Vyacheslav Volodin.
OFAC has now sanctioned the remaining members of Russia’s Security Council, including former President and Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev. The sanctions are imposed in coordination with the United States’ international partners, Canada, the E.U., Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and the U.K.
The decision makers of Russia’s Security Council sanctioned pursuant to E.O. 14024, for being or having been a leader, official, senior executive officer, or member of the board of directors of the government of Russia include the Governor of Saint Petersburg, Aleksandr Dmitrievich Beglov; former Deputy Director of FSB, Vladimir Ivanovich Bulavin; Russia’s Minister of Justice Konstantin Anatolyevich Chuychenko; Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Alexandrovich Kolokoltsev; Prosecutor General Igor Victorovich Krasnov; Russia’s former Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko; Former President and Prime Minister, chairman of the ruling United Russia party Dmitry Anatolievich Medvedev as well as the former head of the Karelian branch of the FSB who was instrumental in the persecution of historian Yuri Dmitriev, Anatoliy Anatolievich Seryshev and the Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Eduardovich Vaino.
