U.S. Sanctions Billionaire Deripaska and Other Russian Oligarchs

The Trump administration sanctioned seven Russian tycoons, 12 companies and 17 senior government officials including key allies of President Vladimir Putin under provisions of a law Congress passed last year to retaliate against Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

“The Russian government operates for the disproportionate benefit of oligarchs and government elites,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement Friday. “The Russian government engages in a range of malign activity around the globe, including continuing to occupy Crimea and instigate violence in eastern Ukraine, supplying the Assad regime with material and weaponry as they bomb their own civilians, attempting to subvert Western democracies, and malicious cyber activities.”

Among the most prominent Russian tycoons identified Friday is Oleg Deripaska, the billionaire founder and majority shareholder of En+ Group, the largest operator of Siberian power plants with a major stake in Russia’s biggest aluminum producer Rusal. Companies Deripaska controls were also sanctioned including En+ Group and GAZ Group, Russia’s leading manufacturer of buses, in which he holds an 83 percent stake.

Read the full article at Bloomberg