The US Department of State has extended its sanctions to include new Alrosa CEO Pavel Marinychev as part of its mission to curb Russian access to finances used in its war against Ukraine.

The government issued executive order 14024 to “degrade Russia’s current and future military capabilities,” and reduce its revenue intake, the Department of State said last week. The sanctions aim to target those who help Russia procure sensitive material and “curtail Russia’s use of the international financial system to further its war.”

The US placed sanctions on Marinychev, who took over as CEO of Alrosa in May, along with other senior Russian government officials and “malign actors” in an effort to “impose costs on and promote accountability for the bureaucratic enablers of Russia’s illegal war,” it explained. It first imposed sanctions on majority-government-owned Russian diamond miner Alrosa and former CEO Sergey Ivanov at the start of 2022. Ivanov left the company later that year.

The designation blocks access to any of Marinychev’s US-owned properties and interests, and forbids any transactions involving him, his assets or Alrosa.

Separately, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has added Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, one of Russia’s largest producers of metals such as copper, zinc and gold, to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. That means its assets have been blocked, and it may not open or hold US bank accounts, transfer money or perform international property transactions.

 

Main image: Pavel Marinychev. (Alrosa)