Melnichenko, Pumpyansky, Moshkovich, Mazepin, Vinokurov, Guryev, Konov, Poluboyarinov, Oseyevsky hit by EU sanctions
MOSCOW. March 9 (Interfax) - A whole new group of Russian businessmen and company chiefs has been hit by EU sanctions.
They include 14 businessmen "involved in key economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue to the Russian Federation" and members of their families, the European Commission said on Wednesday. The names of most of the new entries were published by FT earlier, citing documents that the publication had seen. The official list was published shortly afterward in the EU Journal. It includes Andrei Melnichenko, whose assets include Russia's largest coal exporter SUEK and fertilizer producer EuroChem; Dmitry Pumpyansky, whose assets include TMK and Sinara, and his wife and son, Galina and Alexander; Vadim Moshkovich of Rusagro ; Dmitry Mazepin of Uralchem/Uralkali and son Nikita; Marathon Group President Alexander Vinokurov, the largest shareholder in retailer Magnit ; head of PhosAgro Andrei Guryev; CEO of Aeroflot Mikhail Poluboyarinov; head of SIBUR Dmitry Konov; Rostelecom President Mikhail Oseyevsky; head of VK Vladimir Kiriyenko, already under sanctions; and head of Rusnano Sergei Kulikov.
According to FT, almost all those on the new list participated in a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the business community on February 24, the day the military operation began in Ukraine, which is the basis for the EU including them among the president's inner circle. In the official publication, the February 24 meeting at the Kremlin is indeed mentioned under the heading "grounds" for many of those sanctioned.
The inclusion of a main shareholder on the sanctions list creates more difficulties with product sales for companies. Severstal , whose principal owner Alexei Mordashov was added to the list at the end of February, has already encountered this. The company almost immediately announced that it was no longer shipping to the EU and would instead redirect export flows to other markets.