Page 23 - RUSRptSept18

2.12 Politics - misc
Russian billionaires and Kremlin insiders Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg had their Cyprus bank accounts frozen by the US Treasury Department (USTD), Sigal Mandelker of USDT said on August 21 during the hearings at the Senate Committee of the US Congress. Deripaska, Vekselberg, and their businesses were singled out in the USTD April 6 round of sanctions . USTD now estimates that as a result of the sanctions the fortune of Deripaska halved (Forbes estimated it at $6.7bn in 2018), while that of Vekselberg went down from $16.4bn to $14.4bn as of July 26. Previous reports indicated that Deripaska's En+ and Rusal could be getting closer to striking a deal with USTD to suspend or even lift the sanctions . However, the most recent wave of sanction pressure could have this postponed. In the meantime world's second largest aluminium producer Rusal and its mother energy and metals holding En+ are reportedly preparing to re-register in Russian Special Administrative Districts (SARs), a domestic offshore zone the Russian government introduced in August on Russky and Oktyabrskiy islands. Registration in SARs could be a "plan B" in case negotiations with the Treasury will fail, a source close to Rusal management told Vedomosti daily on August 17, claiming that "residents of SAR could keep the beneficiaries undisclosed and change the whole structure of the holding."
The US State Department announced that the new sanctions on Russia in response over alleged poisoning of former Russian agent on UK soil will take effect on August 27 , upon a publication in the Federal Registrar, a notice in the registrar said . Tougher sanctions on the UK poisoning front was previously urged by UK's top diplomat Jeremy Hunt, while the State Department already announced on August 8 that it would impose additional restrictions. The notice mentions halting foreign aid, arms sales, arms sales financing, while also the denial of the US government credit or other financial assistance (including of the Export-Import Bank of the United States), as well as prohibition on the export to Russia of any "national security-sensitive goods and technology". As sanction pressure mounted in August to new peaks and started to bite through weaker ruble and government bonds, Russian government and the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) for the first time specifically reacted to the effects of sanctions through monetary interventions and outlook
23 RUSSIA Country Report September 2018 www.intellinews.com