This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
The United States has issued new sanctions targeting yachts linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a yacht brokerage, and several government officials in another move intended to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions take further action “to degrade the key networks used by Russia’s elites, including President Vladimir Putin, to attempt to hide and move money and anonymously make use of luxury assets around the globe,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a news release on June 2.
Among the individuals targeted are Sergei Roldugin, a cellist and conductor who the Treasury Department says acts as “custodian of Putin’s offshore wealth,” and Roldugin’s opera singer wife, Elena Mirtova. Roldugin is already under sanctions imposed by the European Union, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand for his links to Putin.
The Treasury Department said its sanctions order was issued in tandem with sanctions announced by the U.S. State Department targeting five oligarchs and elites, including Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Two of the vessels targeted by the Treasury Department are the Russian-flagged Graceful and the Cayman Islands-flagged Olympia. The U.S. Treasury Department identified them as property in which Putin has an interest.
The Russian president has taken numerous trips on the yachts, including one in the Black Sea with Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka last year, the department said.
The brokerage targeted is Imperial Yachts based in Monaco, which is described by the department as “Kremlin-aligned.”
The brokerage allows Russian oligarchs and other owners of superyachts to charter their boats when they are not using them. Another entity targeted is an aviation company in San Marino that the Treasury Department said was involved in a scheme to transfer aircraft to an offshore company to avoid sanctions.
The sanctions order freezes any U.S. assets held by the individuals and entities and bars U.S. persons from dealing with them.
The sanctions are the latest in an unprecedented series of sanctions on Russian entities and individuals — including oligarchs close to Putin — that are designed to force Moscow to change its war policy.
