More than £1.3 billion of Russian-linked assets now frozen in Jersey

Sunday 26 February 2023

More than £1.3 billion worth of assets linked to Russian individuals and companies have now been frozen in Jersey.

A year on from Russia’s invasion, that equates to more than £3.5m a day being taking out of circulation and unable to be accessed by those designated in the sanctions.

It is £141.6m more than the last time the figure was released at the end of last October.

Guernsey has frozen around £0.5m, a figure that has hardly increased since its Government’s first tally was announced last May.

Both jurisdictions apply sanctions imposed by the UK, which relate to hundreds of ‘persons’ – legal and actual - including President Vladimir Putin and Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

The list was updated on Friday. There are 1,551 Russian individuals named and 181 entities.

Former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, who was recently at the centre of a legal spat with Jersey’s police force over illegal raids of premises allegedly connected to him, is number six on the list.

Pictured: Former Chelsea FC owner, Roman Abramovich.

In line with the reporting obligations of financial institutions, 225 sanctions compliance reports have been submitted to the Minister for External Relations, in connection with the Russia sanctions regime.

This is 29 more than the last count at the end of October.

On Friday, the UK Government announced a new package of sanctions, including export bans on every item Ukraine has found Russia using on the battlefield to date.

New names on the list include Putin’s former Chief of Security and the CEO of Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.

Also sanctioned on Friday were senior executives at Russian state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom, executives from Russia’s two largest defence companies, four banks and other Russian elites.