Other oligarchs have been sanctioned alongside Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has announced a full asset freeze and travel ban on seven men deemed to be “Russia’s wealthiest and most influential oligarchs”, according to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), as part of the UK’s sanctions regime against Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine.
The UK Government had deemed that Mr Abramovich has obtained “a financial benefit or other material benefit from Putin and the government of Russia”.
Those benefits including “tax breaks received by companies linked to him, buying and selling shares from and to the state at favourable rates, and the contracts received in the run-up to the Fifa 2018 World Cup”.
He has also been targeted for his associations through “close business relationships and mutual assistance” with already-sanctioned Igor Shuvalov, a former Russian deputy prime minister and general director of Russian gas giant Gazprom.
The Foreign Office also concluded that Mr Abramovich “is or has been involved in destabilising Ukraine” via Evraz plc, a steel manufacturing and mining company in which he has “a significant shareholding and… exercises effective control”.
The department said the firm has been involved in “potentially supplying steel to the Russian military which may have been used in the production of tanks
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: “Today’s sanctions show once again that oligarchs and kleptocrats have no place in our economy or society. With their close links to Putin they are complicit in his aggression.
“The blood of the Ukrainian people is on their hands. They should hang their heads in shame.
“Our support for Ukraine will not waver. We will not stop in this mission to ramp up the pressure on the Putin regime and choke off funds to his brutal war machine.”
5. Andrei Kostinis
VTB bank Chief Executive Andrei Kostinis president and chairman of Russia’s second-largest bank which is controlled by the state. The 65-year-old Russian national is deemed a “close associate” of Mr Putin who has “long supported” the Kremlin. He has a net worth of an estimated £379 million, and has previously been sanctioned by the US and the EU.Photo, OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP via Getty Images Photo: OLGA MALTSEVA
6. Nikolai Tokarev
Nikolai Tokarev, president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft.,and has previously been sanctioned, along with his daughter and wife, by the US. Mr Tokarev is described as a “prominent Russian businessman” with significant business interests and a “long-standing associate” of the Russian president. Mr Tokarev is a former KGB officer who served alongside Mr Putin in East Germany towards the end of the Cold War. (Photo by Alexei Druzhinin Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images) Photo: ALEXEI DRUZHININ
7. Scenes in the capital city of Kyiv in Ukraine. Dmitri Lebedev
Scenes in the capital city of Kyiv in Ukraine. Dmitri Lebedev is chairman of the board of directors with the privately owned Bank Rossiya, which is considered by the US to be “the personal bank for senior officials of the Russian Federation” including Mr Putin’s inner circle. Mr Lebedev is also high up in asset management company ABR Management, and insurance heavyweight Sogaz – both of which are Bank Rossiya affiliates. Picture, Maria Volkova Photo: Maria Volkova