Russian Oligarchs with NYC Properties Making Their Way To US Sanctions List

By: Ilana Siyance

Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine has led some lawmakers to propose full U.S. sanctions not only on President Vladimir Putin, but also onto the full list of his top enablers.  The bans already in place in the U.S., UK, Canada and over a dozen other countries keep the named persons from flying over “democratic skies.”  There is still, however, a long list of Putin’s cronies which remain untouched by the sanctions.

As reported by the NY Post, Republican Roger Wicker of Mississippi is one of the senators calling for the full “Navalny 35” list of Vladimir Putin enablers.  The sanctions are meant to penalized people close to Putin and “to counter and deter malign Russian activities”. They are considered an effective way of stripping the oligarchs of some of their power. “The oligarchs are deeply concerned about travel bans because they undermine their reputations and philanthropy, which they use to bolster their public image,” said Louise Shelley, director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at George Mason University.

As per the Post, one such person, whom is being considered for sanctions is Roman Abramovich, the famed owner of the British soccer club Chelsea F.C..  The 55-year-old billionaire is reportedly known as “Putin’s banker”, and is in the top of the “Navalny 35” list.  Abramovich, who has an estimated net worth of over $13.8 billion, got citizenship in Portugal recently. The UK named Abramovich one of the “key enablers” on Friday, banning him from entering the country. The oligarch, who also owns plenty of New York City property, transferred some $92 million worth of the NYC deeds to his ex-wife, Dasha Zhukova, shortly prior to the announcement of a 2018 round of sanctions.  “This ability of politically exposed people to transfer property to friends and family is a way to get around the law, and we need legislation to address it,” Shelley noted.  Incidentally, Zhukova has publicly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Navalny 35 list, which was compiled by Russian opposition leader Alexi Navalny, also includes: Oleg Deripaska worth an Estimated $4.1 billion with ties to Putin and the Russian mob, whose U.S. assets have already been frozen for years. Names also on the list, but who have not yet been sanctioned by the US are:  Alexei Kuzmichev, a co-founder of the Alfa Bank (Russia’s largest private bank); Eugene Shvidler; and Dmitry Rybololev.

“The people sanctioned this week — by this point eight years after the first sanctions — don’t have traceable property in their names in the United States, which makes it difficult to seize,” said Tom Firestone, a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Levin, who specializes in transnational investigations.