US sanctions Tinkoff Bank, UMMC, Kudrin, head of Alrosa and several deputy ministers

MOSCOW, July 20 (Reuters) – Washington has expanded sanctions against Russia, adding 95 companies and banks to the sanctions list, including Tinkoff Bank, part of the TCS group, and the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, one of Russia’s largest copper miners, the U.S. Treasury Department OFAC said in a statement.

Tinkoff Bank, whose 35% stake was bought from Oleg Tinkov last year by Russian businessman Vladimir Potanin, was on the EU sanctions list earlier this year.

“We have been preparing for this turn of events and will do our best to ensure that this message is as little noticed as possible for our customers. Now we find out what impact the imposed sanctions will have. Tinkoff products, services and applications are operating normally,” the bank wrote on the Telegram channel.

The US also added Gazprom structures to the SDN-List – Gazprom Automation and Design Institute for Gas Processing, Eurasia Drilling Company, a private company that provides drilling services to Russian oil producers, Loko-bank, Unistream-bank, Solidarity Bank and St. Petersburg Social and Commercial Bank.

18 people were also blacklisted, including the former head of the Accounts Chamber and Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin, who joined Internet giant Yandex as an adviser, and Pavel Marinekhev, the new head of Russian diamond mining company Alrosa.

Washington also imposed sanctions on First Deputy Minister of Energy Pavel Sorokin, Deputy Minister of Energy Pavel Snikkars, First Deputy Minister of Economy Ilya Torosov, First Deputy Minister of Industry Vasily Osmakov, First Deputy Minister of Finance Leonid Gornin and Deputy Minister of Economy Alexei Chersontsev.