UK lifts sanctions from billionaire who renounced Russian citizenship

The UK has removed Igor Makarov, a Russian oligarch and founder of Russian gas company ITERA, from the sanctions list after he renounced his Russian citizenship in favour of Cypriot citizenship last year.

Source: the UK government website

Details: ARETI, the company Makarov currently owns, reportedly no longer operates in the Russian power sector. No other details concerning these decisions were disclosed.

In 2022 the UK government stated that Makarov supported or significantly benefited from the Russian government and was operating in a sector that was strategically important for Moscow. Russian property developers God Nisanov and Zarakh Iliev, as well as Iskandar Makhmudov, founder of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, were sanctioned at the same time as Makarov.

Makarov renounced his Russian citizenship in 2023 and is now a citizen of Cyprus. He is described on the UK government website as originally coming from Turkmenistan.

Forbes estimates Makarov’s fortune at US$2.2 billion.

This is not the first time the UK has eased restrictions against a Russian. In summer 2023, sanctions were lifted from Oleg Tinkov, former owner of Tinkoff Bank, and Lev Khasis, former deputy head of Sberbank.

Tinkov was sanctioned in March 2022 after the full-scale war in Ukraine began. Khasis was added to the black list on 24 March 2022, even though he abandoned the bank and immigrated to the US a few days before the war, The Moscow Times adds.

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