Three planes and a yacht of ‘Putin’s chef’ Prigozhin come under US sanctions
Three planes and a yacht of Russian businessman Yevgeniy Prigozhin fell under the sanctions of the US Treasury because of the "attempt to influence the 2018 US midterm elections," reads the press release of the Department.
"Treasury is targeting the private planes, yacht, and associated front companies of Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Russian financier behind the Internet Research Agency and its attempts to subvert American democratic processes," reads the document.
"Prigozhin utilizes a series of front companies to manage his luxury personal property to include three private jets and a yacht," reports US Treasury.
The Department explained that these measures are being taken in response to the attempts of the Internet Research Agency, which was funded by Prigozhin, to intervene in the midterm elections in the United States in 2018.
The sanctions list also includes Autolex Transport Ltd, Beratex Group Limited and Linburg Industries LTD companies, as well as Denis Kuzmin and Igor Nesterov. All these companies and individuals are included in the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List.
Also, the St Vitamin yacht, which is related to Beratex Group Limited, and M-SAAN (associated with Autolex Transport Ltd), RA-02791 (associated with Beratex Group Limited) and VP-CSP (associated with Linburg Industries Ltd) aircrafts are included in the list.
"The US government will continue to work to ensure that Prigozhin and others like him find no refuge or comfort as long as they carry out destabilizing activities that threaten the interests of the United States and its allies and partners," said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
He stressed that the US "will continue to push back against malign actors who seek to subvert our democratic processes and we will not hesitate to impose further costs on Russia for its destabilizing and unacceptable activities will continue to fight back against hostile forces that are trying to undermine our democratic process."
Yevgeny Prigozhin is known as “Putin’s chef”, since amongst other things, he deals with food supplies for the Russian authorities. The businessman met the Russian president in 2011 when, as the owner of an elite restaurant, he personally served Vladimir Putin and former French President Jacques Chirac.