Russian President Putin and businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, a well-known private jet and luxury yacht owner
Moscow … News time
The US Treasury has increased sanctions against a close associate of Vladimir Putin for alleged efforts to influence the 2018 elections، اnd has warned Moscow that it will take aggressive action against future attempts to interfere in next year’s US elections. Owing to a relationship with the Kremlin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman who owned a private jet and luxury yacht known as the Chef of Putin, was banned by some of his companies and their affiliates and their Internet research agency. US officials described the firm as a troll farm in St. Petersburg that uses social media accounts and fake news to interfere with US elections. Despite President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to directly condemn the Russian counterpart or the Kremlin for the alleged attackto target election interference under the new US lawSeptember 2018 was banned for the first time by the US government in response to an intervention to identify new pressures.
US Finance Minister Steven Mnuchin said in a statement that the target of the US Treasury’s efforts are the private aircraft, yachts and related front companies of Russian investor Yevgeny Prigozhin, the research agency that sabotaged the US democratic process. The current administration will work hard to safeguard our electoral process and aggressively pursue any other foreign element that seeks to interfere with the 2020 elections. The Office of Sanctions Policy Supervision’s Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) said in a statement the move is part of a wider pressure on countries, particularly Russia, China and Iran, to stop trying to influence the upcoming 2020 elections.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States will continue to work to ensure that there is no refuge or comfort for Yevgeny Prigozhin and others like him, As long as they continue to perform destabilizing activities that threaten the interests of the United States, its allies and partners. “We will not refrain from imposing further sanctions to prevent Russia from its destructive and unacceptable activities,” he added. Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) said in a statement that there was no indication that foreign elements were capable of influencing the electoral structure, causing interruptions to stop voting, changing the counting of votes or calculating votes.
Yevgeny Prigozhin was the owner of St. Petersburg’s leading restaurant in the early 2000s when he befriended Vladimir Putin. They have won hundreds of millions of dollars worth of catering deals for Russian schools and the army there and met with the Russian President and other foreign leaders during the visit. 4 of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Internet Research Agency and the other 6 people included in Monday’s statement were already under US sanctions because according to the US Treasury, they tried to interfere in the 2016 election and help Donald Trump win. Yevgeny Prigozhin and several employees of the Internet Research Agency are facing criminal charges in the United States, Robert Mueller, a special prosecutor investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Representatives of Yevgeny Prigozhin declined to comment, citing ongoing legal proceedings. Remember that the Kremlin has always denied Russian efforts to interfere in US elections. Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) said Monday that the sanctions had been extended to include three companies, Yevgeny Prigozhin-affiliated companies, three private planes and the luxury yacht St. Vitamin, on which his family vacationed. Yevgeny Prigozhin launched 2017 in the Central African Republic and two other countries where Russian private security company Wigan, according to Russian media, which is affiliated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, he used a jet to travel to several African countries, including France.
One of the jets with SAN (M-SAAN) is registered in the Isle of Man under the British Crown.Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) said that by continuing the services of these aircraft and ships, there is a risk of facilitating or assisting in the malicious activities of Yevgeny Prigozhin, which provides such services. And there may be restrictions in the future.
