The business jet of “Putin’s chef” Yevgeny Prigozhin, included in all possible sanctions lists of the EU and the United States, is being repaired at Brandenburg Airport in Berlin, as if nothing had happened – BILD writes on June 17.
This article is available in Polish.
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The Hawker 900XP jet was bought by Prigozhin in Lithuania and is probably based in St. Petersburg most of the time. The aircraft arrived in Berlin for service, BILD reports. This happened after the sanctions entered into force, on October 30, 2020. On that day, the only passenger arrived on it – entrepreneur Artyom Stepanov, who is on the US sanctions list as a man who runs companies allegedly created by Prigozhin to circumvent the sanctions.
The plane was bought by a shell company and registered in San Marino, a state that doesn’t even have an airport.
The German Economy Ministry, in response to a request from journalists, confirmed that all Prigozhin’s property in the EU should be frozen. However, they refrained from commenting on this particular situation.
In 2019, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on two Russians and three companies due to interference in the 2016 presidential election. The sanctions list includes Russian citizens Denis Kuzmin and Igor Nesterov. According to the US Treasury Department, they are associated with the Internet Research Agency of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. Three companies associated with Prigozhin also fell under the sanctions. These are Autolex Transport, Beratex Group and Linburg Industries, registered in the Seychelles, as well as a branch of Linburg Industries in the Czech Republic. The sanctions list also includes the yacht St. Vitamin and three private jets registered with the above companies. The US Treasury believes that these vehicles belong to Prigozhin.
A year ago, the US Treasury Department added three more Russians and five firms associated with Prigozhin to the sanctions list for trying to destabilize the situation in Sudan. The Russian company M Invest, controlled by Prigozhin, also got on the sanctions list. This company, according to the American authorities, served as a cover for the actions of the Russian Ministry of Defense and was responsible for developing plans of action for ex-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to suppress protests, whose participants wanted democratic reforms in Sudan.
In 2020, the European Union included Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin on the Libyan sanctions list due to the fact that he supports the private military company Wagner. This is stated in the Official Journal of the EU. The publication says that Prigozhin has close ties with PMC Wagner, including financial ones. At the same time, PMC Wagner, according to the EU, has previously repeatedly violated the arms embargo in Libya, deployed its mercenaries in this country in support of the Libyan National Army Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, and also participated in battles against the government of national accord which is supported by the UN.
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