EU hits Roman Abramovich and other oligarchs with new sanctions

The EU has added names including Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich to an asset freeze and travel ban list, in an attempt to increase the pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Alfa Group shareholders German Khan and Alexey Kuzmichev are among the individuals placed under sanctions, according to draft legal texts seen by the Financial Times.

Tigran Khudaverdyan, executive director of Yandex, one of Russia’s leading IT companies, is also blacklisted for being one of the businesspeople with close ties to the Kremlin.

The economic measures include a ban on transactions with state-owned Russian companies, except in the oil and gas sector, and certain raw materials such as aluminium, copper and palladium, according to diplomats briefed on the discussions.

An EU import ban on steel products worth €3.3bn, as well as an EU export ban for luxury goods to Russia, including luxury cars and jewellery, have also been adopted by the bloc, the European Commission said.

European companies will be banned from making new investments in the Russian energy sector, except for civil nuclear energy and the transport of certain energy products to the EU.

European credit rating agencies will also be banned from rating Russian companies and the country’s sovereign debt, the commission said.

“These sanctions will further contribute to ramping up economic pressure on the Kremlin and cripple its ability to finance its invasion of Ukraine,” the commission said, adding that the restrictions were co-ordinated with allies, notably the US.

The new sanctions are to be published in the EU’s official journal later on Tuesday.