The United States has so far abandoned sanctions against Russian businessmen

Oleg Deripaska in the near future will remain the latest victim of individual tough US sanctions against the defendants in the “Kremlin list”. Having assessed the costs, the Trump administration decided not to oppose Russian businessmen, but to state projects like Nord Stream 2, write Open Media (OM), citing several sources in the administration, the Treasury and the US Congress.

According to the OM, the US administration unofficially waived sanctions against major Russian businessmen back in late spring and early summer 2018. The publication indicates that only Arkady Rotenberg's partners at Sheremetyevo Airport, Alexander Ponomarenko and Alexander Skorobogatko, are now spending significant funds on lobbying in the United States.

List and sanctions

The “Kremlin list” of oligarchs, politicians and officials close to Vladimir Putin was compiled in January 2018 in accordance with the Countering US Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). The law tightened anti-Russian sanctions imposed because of the events in Ukraine. Deripaska made the list along with almost the entire top 100 of the Russian Forbes .

Being on the list does not in itself mean sanctions, but it makes it significantly more difficult for those involved to do business with the United States. It is for this reason that Valentin Gapontsev, the least pro-Putin billionaire on the list, sued the US Treasury. So far, the parties have agreed on a pre-trial settlement , but he remained on the list.

Read also “Punish the bad guy”: how American lobbyists pulled Deripaska’s companies out of sanctions for $1 million

Sanctions and Lobby Success

In April 2018, Deripaska and the structures in which he owned more than 50%, including En +, UC Rusal and the GAZ group, fell under tough sanctions.

• This meant the freezing of all assets in American jurisdiction, a ban on entry into the United States and a ban on commercial relations with Deripaska and his companies for American citizens and companies. Along with Deripaska, businessmen Viktor Vekselberg, Vladimir Bogdanov, Suleiman Kerimov and "Putin's son-in-law" Kirill Shamalov were sanctioned by the Ministry of Finance.
• According to OM, the US administration did not expect the market collapse caused by sanctions against one of the world's major aluminum producers UC Rusal. Deripaska, in a lawsuit against the US Treasury in March 2019, estimated personal losses at $7.5 billion, or 81% of his fortune.
• The sanctions and their implementation were spontaneous and ill-prepared, the publication claims. “It was not very clear why he was chosen as the victim, while other obvious targets were left untouched,” says the OM interlocutor. Sanctions against Deripaska were also dissatisfied with American hedge funds that held shares in the billionaire's companies.
• The lifting of sanctions on En+, UC Rusal and Eurosibenergo at the beginning of 2019 in exchange for Deripaska's consent to give up control and management is an example of the successful work of lobbyists, writes OM. The chairman of the board of directors of En +, Lord Gregory Barker, who was appointed after the sanctions, hired Mercury for this purpose, which helped negotiate with the US authorities to remove Deripaska.
• Barker eventually received from $3.9 million to $5.2 million for the withdrawal of companies from sanctions, wrote Bloomberg. About how lobbyists provided this for little money, we wrote here .

Who is at risk

After that, the Trump administration is determined to act carefully, and without new reasons, new sanctions against Russian businessmen are unlikely, writes OM. But sanctions are likely against military-industrial complex enterprises, new sanctions on the Skripal case and against Nord Stream 2, sources say.

According to the interlocutor of the OM, the sanctions against Nord Stream 2 have been ready for more than a year. “Everyone is waiting for a go-ahead from the White House, which does not come. That's where the last hurdle is. Trump has so far resisted the sanctions because he expects to use their threat as leverage against Germany,” says a person close to the State Department.