US sanctions one of Russia's richest men, his family and investments

The US has targeted Russia's financial services sector and Russian businessman Vladimir Potanin. Picture: Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images

The US has targeted Russia's financial services sector and Russian businessman Vladimir Potanin, increasing pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Washington imposed sanctions on Mr Potanin, one of Russia's richest men, as well as his wife, adult children, yacht and Interros, an investment holding company Mr Potanin controls, the US State Department said. 

Mr Potanin, 61, is the largest shareholder at Nornickel, which was not designated. 

Interros owns 36% of Nornickel. Nornickel, the world's top palladium and refined nickel producer, was one of the biggest prizes in the post-Soviet carve-up of Russian industry in 1990s.

The US Treasury Department said Washington also imposed sanctions on Rosbank, a Russia-based commercial bank it said Mr Potanin acquired earlier this year, along with 17 subsidiaries of Russian VTB, which was designated by Washington earlier this year.

"By sanctioning additional major Russian banks, we continue to deepen Russia’s isolation from global markets,” the treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Brian Nelson, said in the statement.

Today’s designations by the United States, together with actions taken by our international partners, will further inhibit the Putin regime’s ability to fund its horrific war against Ukraine."

Nornickel declined to comment. Russia's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The move freezes any US assets of those designated and generally bars Americans from dealing financially with them.

The US State Department also imposed sanctions on members of the board of directors of state-owned enterprise Russian Railways, members of the government, including the governor of the Moscow region, as well as their family members.

Also designated were seven "Russia-appointed proxy authorities in Ukraine," the State Department said. 

In 2021, Nornickel was the world's top producer of refined nickel, used to make stainless steel and important for electric vehicle batteries. It also extracted 10% of the world's platinum and 40% of its palladium, which is used in car exhausts. 

The son of a high-ranking Soviet trade official, Mr Potanin was educated at Moscow’s elite diplomatic academy. He was one of a group of tycoons known as the oligarchs who acquired enormous wealth by taking over prize state assets in a flawed privatisation drive in the 1990s. His wife and daughter were also named in the sanctions announcement by the US Treasury. 

• Reuters