EU set to add high-profile Russian executives to sanctions list

The EU will on Wednesday discuss adding Herman Gref, the head of Russia’s Sberbank, and aluminium oligarch Oleg Deripaska to its sanctions list as it seeks to tighten the screw on Russian businesses following the invasion of Ukraine.

Alexander Shulgin, the chief of Russian ecommerce platform Ozon, Boris Rotenberg, one of president Vladimir Putin’s closest business associates and Said Kerimov, who controls Russia’s largest gold miner Polyus, will also be put on the list, according to a draft document seen by the Financial Times.

Two of Putin’s daughters are also to be added to the list of people hit by asset freezes and travel bans by the bloc if it is approved by EU ambassadors. The list is not final and could still change before being brought into force.

Ekaterina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, Putin’s daughters from his first marriage, are to be placed under sanctions for benefiting from Russian government funds, according to the draft list.

The EU is stepping up its sanctions by targeting Russian coal imports and widening its restrictions on the country’s banking sector as it responds to allegations of atrocities committed by the Russian military in Ukraine, including in the town of Bucha near Kyiv.

The latest round of measures is also expected to include export bans worth €10bn in areas including quantum computers and advanced semiconductors and bans worth €5.5bn, on products including wood, cement, seafood and liquor.

The EU is not expected to hit Russian oil exports in the current round of sanctions, but officials are discussing ways of including the sector in future rounds of penalties.

Deripaska, who controlled Russia’s largest aluminium producer Rusal before US sanctions in 2018 forced him to dilute his stake in the company, is included on the draft list for his ownership of a number of arms companies that the EU claims provided weapons used in the invasion of Ukraine.

Rotenberg, a Finnish citizen, has made his fortune thanks to tenders and contracts from state-controlled oil and gas companies. He and his nephew, Igor, are set to be placed under sanctions for their close ties to Putin. Arkady Rotenberg, Boris’s brother, is already under sanctions.