US frustrates Russian oligarchs’ cat and mouse over sanctions

Airfix Aviation Oy, IPP Oil Products (Cyprus) and Oy Langvik Capital are hardly household names, but when the US added the three companies to its sanctions list last month it opened a new front in its game of cat-and-mouse with some of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs.

The low-profile additions — the US said they were “not an escalation” of its measures against Russia — drew attention to a dizzying series of asset sales that have taken place in the past 18 months as oligarchs targeted by the US have changed the ownership of their businesses.

Gennady Timchenko, Russia’s ninth-richest man according to Forbes, who has been named by the US as a member of president Vladimir Putin’s “inner circle”, has in the past 18 months sold stakes in commodity trader Gunvor, fishery group Russian Sea, several aviation groups including Airfix, IPP Oil Products, petrochemicals group Sibur, and most recently has agreed the sale of construction groups ARKS and SK Most..................

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