US adds Swiss ‘facilitators’ and firms to Russian sanctions list

Alisher Usmanov, pictured here in 2007, has a global network of companies and 'facilitators'. Keystone / Str

Three Swiss citizens and two companies have been added to the United States sanctions list for supporting Russian oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Gennady Timchenko.

On Wednesday the US treasury department updated its sanctions listExternal link to take in a range of people and entities based in numerous countries, including Cyprus, China, Britain and the United Arab Emirates.

The three Swiss individuals are named as “facilitators” linked to the Sequoia legal firm registered in the neighbouring principality of Liechtenstein.

Sequoia is suspected of providing “financial, material, or technological support to, or goods or services to or in support of Timchenko”.

The Geneva-based Pomerol Capital is named as a trustee of the Sister Trust, a Bermuda entity allegedly run on behalf of Usmanov and his sister Gulbakhor Ismailova.

Iron ore supplier and mining group Metalloinvest Trading, based in canton Zug, has also been linked to Usmanov.

The US is applying pressure on Switzerland to ratchet up sanctions against Russia. The US ambassador to Bern believes Switzerland’s current CHF7.5 billion ($8.3 billion) haul of frozen assets could be increased to CHF100 billion.

But the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, the department responsible for enforcing sanctions, has dismissed claims that it is dragging its feet.