A Ukrainian court has frozen the assets of Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska worth Hr 2.1 billion (nearly $50 million), the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on Jan. 29.
Deripaska, formerly Russia's richest man and founder of the Basic Element industrial group and the Rusal aluminum company, was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 and the U.K. in 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion. Ukraine nationalized some of Deripaska's business assets already in February 2023.
In the latest move, the court immobilized a large consignment of industrial products and raw materials stored in the warehouses of the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant, which the Russian oligarch previously owned. The consignment included almost 500,000 tons of bauxite and alumina produced before the outbreak of full-scale war, the SBU said.
The seized materials were the main component to produce aluminum at Deripaska's Russian Rusal plants, according to the SBU.
Deripaska owned these assets through a subsidiary registered in a European Union country. The company was a formal customer of the plant's products, which were then re-exported to Deripaska's Russian enterprises. In 2023, Ukrainian law enforcement authorities blocked the shipment of raw materials.
Deripaska reportedly manufactures products for the Russian military-industrial complex, including components for Iskander ballistic missiles, drones, and radar systems.
In February 2024, the SBU charged Deripaska in absentia with financing actions aimed at overthrowing Ukraine's constitutional order, seizing state power, and changing Ukraine's state border.
Since 2018, Deripaska has been under U.S. sanctions as a person close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who finances his projects.
Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the billionaire was also stripped of his Cypriot citizenship, which he received in 2017.
Chris York
(Updated: )
