(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden is poised to impose sanctions on a number of Russian oligarchs and their families on Thursday, as the U.S. and its allies seek to exert further pressure on the wealthy businessmen around President Vladimir Putin in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions will be in keeping with measures the European Union imposed on Feb. 28, according to people familiar with the plans who asked not to be identified in advance of an announcement.
But the U.S. restrictions will be broader, prohibiting the tycoons’ travel to the U.S. and also targeting their families to prevent them from transferring assets to spouses or children, a tactic that’s been used in the past to evade sanctions.
The specific targets of the U.S. sanctions are still under discussion, the people said, and they declined to identify any of them ahead of an official announcement.
The moves are the latest effort by the administration to turn the screws on Putin and his inner circle following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week. On Wednesday, the U.S Justice Department announced a task force to enforce sanctions and export restrictions and to seize luxury assets belonging to Russia’s wealthiest citizens.
The administration believes that if the tycoons are put under financial strain, they may distance themselves from Putin and possibly pressure him to stop the war in Ukraine. A State Department spokesman declined to comment and spokespeople for the White House National Security Council didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The Washington Post reported earlier that the U.S. was preparing sanctions on Russia’s wealthy elites.
Earlier this week, Europe announced sanctions on several wealthy Russians including metals tycoon Alisher Usmanov, Alfa Group owners Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, plus Alexey Mordashov, who controls a major steel company. Some had already been under sanction over Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014.
German authorities have seized Usmanov’s superyacht, and French authorities said they stopped Rosneft chief executive officer Igor Sechin’s superyacht from leaving port on the Cote D’Azur on Thursday. Usmanov and others have lambasted the sanctions as unfair and illegal.
The U.S. on Feb. 24 announced sanctions against Putin, his foreign minister, some national security aides and top executives of some of Russia’s biggest banks and state-owned entities, as well as Sechin. But it had so far held off imposing sanctions on the broader circle of billionaires who accumulated vast wealth by snapping up privatized Russian companies for bottom-basement prices in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Many of those oligarchs had thrown in their lot with Putin in recent years. But several have offered hints in recent days that they’re looking to distance themselves from the war, though none have condemned Putin directly.
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