UK sanctions Medvedchuk's wife, those with financial links to Russian oligarchs

The U.K. government has announced a new sanctions package targeting Oksana Marchenko, the wife of key Putin ally Victor Medvedchuk, as well as relatives and financial fixers of major Russian oligarchs, including Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov.

"We are closing the net on the Russian elite and those who try to help them hide their money for war… We will keep cutting them off from assets they thought were successfully hidden," said the U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. "We won't stop until Putin does."

The sanctions list includes family members of the" richest man in the Duma (Russia's parliament)," Andrei Skoch, the owner of Sistema JSFC conglomerate Vladimir Evtushenkov, and Russian senator from the Republic of Dagestan Suleyman Kerimov.

The listed oligarchs used their relatives "as proxies to hide their assets," according to the report.

Among those sanctioned also are Cypriots Demetris Ioannides and Christodoulos Vassiliades, whom the U.K. government called "professional enablers" supporting Abramovich, ex-Chelsea football club owner, and Usmanov.

Usmanov's network of companies was sanctioned as well, including USM, Curzon Square, and Hanley Limited, reads the report.

Marchenko, sanctioned wife of the pro-Kremlin politician Medvedchuk, was put on the wanted list by Ukraine's Internal Ministry on April 11. Medvedchuk was charged with high treason and placed under house arrest in 2021.

He fled the house arrest after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 and was subsequently re-arrested in April. In September, he was handed over to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange.