Today, the United Kingdom expanded sanctions on Russia by imposing asset freeze restrictions on 59 Russian and six Belarusian actors. The measures target key strategic industries in Russia, and include large banks, defense companies, and Russian elites.

Of note, the following Russian banks and companies have been added to the U.K.’s consolidated asset freeze list:

Alfa-Bank JSC
Gazprombank
Russian Agricultural Bank
Alrosa
Kronshtadt
Wagner
Russian Railways
Russian Venture Company

Moreover, the United Kingdom imposed asset freeze and travel sanctions on many Russian elites and oligarchs, including:

Oleg Tinkov, founder of Tinkoff Bank;
Herman Gref, CEO of Sberbank;
Oleg E Aksyutin, Deputry Chairman of Gazprom PJSC;
Didier Casimiro, the First Vice President of Rosneft;
Zeljko Runje, Deputy Chairman and First Vice President for Oil, Gas, and Offshore Business Development of Rosneft;
Galina Danilchenko, named mayor of Melitopol;
Eugene Markovich Shvidler, a billionaire oligarch.

With respect to Belarus, the United Kingdom sanctioned the following entities:

Bank Dabrabyt Joint Stock Company
CJSC Belbizneslizing
Industrial-Commercial Private Unitary Enterprise Minotor-Service
JSC Transaviaexport Airlines
Limited Liability Company Belinvest-Engineering
OJSC KB Radar-Managing Company Holding Radar System

All accounts, and other funds or economic resources, and any funds owned or controlled by designated individuals and entities in the UK must be frozen and UK persons must refrain from dealing with frozen funds or assets unless authorized. As with U.S. blocking restrictions, reporting and anti-circumvention requirements apply.

The UK issued two general licenses (INT/2022/1424276 and INT/2022/1424277) authorizing the wind down of certain transactions involving Alfa Bank JSC, GazPromBank, Rosselkhozbank, SMP Bank, Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Bank Dabrabyt Joint Stock Company through April 23, 2022.

The UK also clarified that existing general license INT/2022/1381276 authorizes the provision of financial services to wind down certain transactions entered into prior to March 1, 2022 with entities owned, controlled, or acting on behalf of Russia’s Central Bank, National Wealth Fund, or Russian Ministry of Finance.

Additional U.K. Sanctions Targeting Russian Industries, Banks, Elites; Belarusian Entities