On February 27, the US government included four more characters in a list of Russians that is about to follow, and even surpass, the EU. go to head it Vladimir Valdimirovich Putinwho with his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrovand its two main military chiefs, the Minister of Defense Sergei Shugoy, and the chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimovare already subject to a blockade of goods and activities abroad.
But the list was already populated by eight other names, all with some relation to the prolegomenon of the crisis in Ukraine in 2014, in Donbas and Crimea, or military training in Syria.
Some of them shared careers with Putin in the KGB, others are the sons of old secret service chiefs, others built their fortunes in the queue for the privatization of colossal Russian state-owned companies. Eleven Russian tycoons form a cluster of interests around the country’s president. The sights of Western governments are now again directed against them.
The most incisive list has been drawn up by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the first entity to sanction russian oligarchs after the annexation by Russia of Crimea in 2014. That watch list summarizes the information that the US State Department collects from different intelligence agencies.
The “Putin List”
The same names, among many others, appear on another list of denunciations, drawn up by various organizations opposed to Putin in a sort of commission of inquiry in exile, who publishes his research from London.
The existence of a business body of praetorians around Putin It is an old certainty of the Western authorities, but it was coined with the figure “government elite & rdquor; –first used by the Pentagon in the 2003 invasion of Iraq to identify bishops of Saddam Hussein– when that country applied individual sanctions in April 2018, during a sharpening of the fighting in Donbas and after the still unclarified sarin gas bombardment In Syria.
The first list of controlled Russian oligarchs appeared in an intelligence report commissioned from Treasury Section 241, now known as S241R (Section 241 Report) or Putin List (Putin’s list).
Oleg paid gangsters
From Putin’s business court, three names stand out for their influence, two of them are on the American list and one of those two has been close to joining the club of big Spanish businesses… and also in the file of the National Police.
The Aluminum Tycoon Oleg Deripaska, owner of the Siberian giant Basic Element – Rusal and the electric company En+ was outlined as a possible partner for a hypothetical entry of the Spanish ACS of Florentino Perez in the great works of Russia. It was another time: in 2007, the Spanish firm became a shareholder of the German construction company Hochtief and found it controlling 9.9% of the capital, but a rivalry for the leadership of the firm soon broke out. In October 2008, Deripaska exited Hochtief by selling his stake to Commerzbank.
By then, the German police were investigating whether he was related to the Russian mafia Ismailovoafter hints from a former associate: Mikhail Chernoy. Pawns of that criminal group had murdered some of Deripaska’s internal competitors.
The Spanish justice system also investigated him, along with Chernoy, for allegedly laundering money from the Russian mafia in Spain. The judge of the National High Court Fernando Andreu questioned him in 2010 as accused in Moscow, where he only appeared as a witness. Before the judge, Deripaska admitted that he paid thugs of the also called Ismailovskaya mafia in exchange for protection.
Deripaska is being investigated by the US authorities for money laundering, and the 241 list lists him as “accused of threatening the lives of business rivals.” The Russian opposition in exile points to Delipaska as a financier of the Obtaining key information for the Russia Friendly match in Ukraine, whose followers have turned into a pro-Russian militia in Donbas. Now, with international sanctions approaching, he writes anti-war manifestos.
the gas station
The other two key influencers in Putin’s business court are Vagit Alekperov and Yevgeny Prigozhinpresident of Lukoil the first and the Concord hotel consortium the second.
The president of Lukoil has been on and off the Putin List over the years. Owner of a fortune that exceeds 20,000 million dollars according to ForbesAlekperov became interested in the Marina Port Vell project in Barcelona in 2014 with capital from the Virgin Islands that it would channel through the Salamanca Group, a London investment bank. The British capital is the preferred place of operations for the Putin business elite.
In 2003, Alekperov unsuccessfully attempted to set up a wide network of gas stations in Spain to rival Cepsa and Repsol. He did not get the go-ahead from the government of Jose Maria Aznar.
Wanted by the FBI
The American FBI has included this Monday a new name in its most wanted list: Yevgueni Prigozhin, known as “Putin’s cook & rdquor; because one of his companies provided the catering service for the Kremlin.
The FBI requires his arrest (and offers a quarter of a million dollars) as the alleged assembler of a network of thousands of false identities on the Internet with which to influence the American elections.
Both the Kremlin and himself have repeatedly denied ties that the French intelligence services attribute to him with the Russian mercenary company Wagner, launched in Donbas against the Ukrainian army in 2014, hardened in Syria and current Russian irregular military tool in the Sahel .
A pineapple
The race of Kiril Shamalovtoday the majority shareholder of the Siberian oil and gas company Sibur, skyrocketed from its wedding with ballerina Katerina Tikhonova, Putin’s youngest daughter. With that and the gift from another member of the corporate Praetorian clan, Genadi Timchenko, Putin’s partner: the sale of a package that would allow him to control Sibur… with financing from Gazprombank and the VTB bank, today sanctioned with their expulsion from the Swift system, and of which he is CEO Andrey KostinPutin’s financial ideologue.
The president’s son-in-law heads the rest of the clan on the American and Russian lists, with the tycoon’s prominent presence Victor Vekselberg, owner of Renova Group, with legs in aluminum, energy, telecommunications and industrial software. The United States accuses him of bribing officials and trying to influence US politicians under the administration obama.
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The rest of the millionaires with assets blocked in the US and blockable in Europe are the gas vice-president of Surgutneftegaz, Vladimir Bogdanovthe majority shareholder of Gazprom Burenie, Igor Rotenberg, and the deputy of the Duma accused in the US of being an international mobster Andrey Skoch.
One more has fixed assets: Suleiman Kerimov, Putinist declared in the Council of the Russian Federation, arrested in Paris in 2017 for irregularly introducing 20 million dollars. His main occupation is the purchase of villas, properties with which, according to American and Russian investigations, he would launder money to the rest of the oligarchs.