Dozens of Russian billionaires have secured lifting of sanctions: names and reasons

Dozens of Russian billionaires have managed to get their sanctions lifted. Some of them had to file lawsuits. Most of the cases of sanctions being lifted were against the EU.

RTVI studied 88 cases. For the most part, sanctions were lifted from those who severed ties with Russia and changed their place of residence, or proved that they were not doing business in Russia. In addition, in some countries, it was easier to get sanctions lifted than in others.

Billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky challenged the sanctions together with his wife Galina and son Alexander and was successful. Race car driver Nikita Mazepin was able to prove that he was not connected to the business of his father, Uralchem owner Dmitry Mazepin.

Who got the sanctions lifted through the court:

Businessmen:

• Dmitry Konov – former head of Sibur (partially)
• Vladimir Rashevsky, former head of Eurochem
• Sergey Mndoyants – former top manager of Sistema JSFC
• Alexander Shulgin – former head of Ozon

Relatives of businessmen:

• Pavel Yezubov – cousin of Oleg Deripaska (partially)
• Maya Tokareva – daughter of the head of Transneft
• Violetta Prigozhina – mother of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner PMC

For example, sanctions against former Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh, who has been living in Israel since 2014, were lifted in 2023, a few months after his public anti-war statement. Similarly, restrictions were lifted on the owner of the YES group and RBC media holding, Grigory Berezkin, former co-owner of Nortgaz Farhad Akhmedov, and billionaire Alisher Usmanov's sister, Saodat Narziyeva. No reasons for this decision were given. Usmanov himself and his other sister, Gulbakhor Ismailova, were denied the lifting of sanctions.

Among the successful Canadian cases, RTVI has identified a pattern: those who have withdrawn from public activities and distanced themselves from Russia have higher chances of getting out of sanctions. For example, sanctions were lifted against Lev Khasis, the former first deputy chairman of Sber, who left the bank a few days before Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine and left Russia in April 2022. He was followed by three other former Sber top managers: Natalia Alymova, Alexandra Buriko, and Sergey Maltsev, all of whom are now off the sanctions list.

However, those who remained in the media field and held a higher position in society found it more difficult to get out from under the restrictions. Igor Makarov, the founder of Itera, was denied. Alexei Isaikin, the founder of Volga-Dnipro Airlines, remained under sanctions. Laura and Kateryna Friedman, daughters of billionaire Mikhail Friedman, failed to appeal the restrictions.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, banks in Central Asian countries have begun to massively refuse to accept payments from Russia. In particular, we are talking about financial institutions in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber.Do not fall for fakes!