London, Thanasis Gavos

Two Cypriots have been placed on the British government’s sanctions list due to their professional association with Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov, who are also under sanctions due to their ties to the Putin regime.

As announced by the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the sanctions concern Dimitris Ioannidis and Christodoulos Vassiliadis.

Mr. Ioannidis is a professional provider of financial services. He is being judged by London to be responsible for creating the “cloudy offshore structures” that Abramovich used to hide more than £760m of assets so they would not be covered by sanctions against him following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Among them the mansion worth 90 million pounds in west London.

Lawyer Mr Vasiliadis is believed to be “at the center of a network of trusts and offshore companies” linked to Usmanov. Indicatively, it is reported that through this network the Azeri-Russian businessman attempted to conceal the ownership of the historic 16th century English mansion Sutton Place, which now appears to belong to companies owned by Vassiliadis.

In total Britain has frozen £18bn of assets belonging to Russians and other businessmen linked to Putin.

Regarding the new sanctions, which in addition to the two Cypriots also concern a number of companies of Usmanov’s financial “network” in Britain as well as relatives of Russian officials, Foreign Minister James Cleverly said: “We are tightening the rope around the Russian elite and those who try to help them hide their war money. There is no place for them to hide.”