US imposes sanctions on Russian financial sector

The United States on Thursday imposed a new series of sanctions on people and organizations in the Russian financial sector, one of those affected being Vladimir Potanin, one of the richest men in the country, along with his family and a commercial bank he acquired this year.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on more than 40 people linked to the Russian financial sector and 17 subsidiaries of the company Banco VTB, the second in Russia, already designated to receive sanctions in February.

The Department of State issued diplomatic designations to individuals and companies.

Western nations and allies have imposed a series of sanctions aimed at crushing Russian finances due to President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian Central Bank faces restrictions that prevent access to more than 600,000 million dollars in reserves held by the Kremlin. Allied countries have blocked gold transactions with the Russian Central Bank.

Russia has been disconnected from the international financial messaging system SWIFT, which moves countless millions of dollars daily between 11,000 banks and other financial institutions around the world. Countless banks have been blocked, including Sberbank, which holds a third of Russia’s bank funds.

Potanin has been Russia’s deputy prime minister. It was sanctioned along with his wife, his adult children and their yacht Nirvana, as was Rosbank, a Russia-based commercial bank acquired by him in 2022.

The Russian Central Bank considers Rosbank an important lending institution for the system, according to the Treasury. The United Kingdom and Canada imposed sanctions on it several months ago.

“The United States continues to impose costs on Russia for its aggressive war against Ukraine,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “Russia’s attacks have devastated Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and caused an extraordinary number of deaths and destruction.”