The UK government released updates to its sanctions lists earlier today, imposing new restrictions on tankers for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG), companies associated with the A7 cryptocurrency network, and several officers of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).
Among the senior GRU officers, London listed:
- Nikolai Sazhin
- Ruslan Koshkin
- Alexander Votchenko
- Sergei Mazurik
- Alexander Matrosov
- Roman Gaivoronsky
- Dmitry Zubkov
- Stanislav Popov
- Konstantin Strafilov
- and Maxim Mamontov
The UK government links some of them (including Mamontov and Popov) to sanctions evasion schemes focused on the procurement of foreign-made equipment and military technologies via shell companies.
Also sanctioned were several Russian companies and banks, including Yandex Bank and Wildberries Bank, as well as two companies linked to the A7 crypto payment system, which was created by Promsvyazbank and fugitive Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor.
The new sanctions also targeted Russia's “shadow fleet,” specifically LNG-carrying tankers. It is noted that the United Kingdom is the first G7 country to impose sanctions on a range of LNG tankers acquired by Russia to service the sanctioned Arctic LNG-2 project.
