EU imposes sanctions on Russian oil boss Eduard Khudainatov
The European Union has imposed sanctions on a Russian oil boss who is separately alleged by the US authorities to be acting as a “straw man” owner of two yachts linked to Vladimir Putin and his inner circle.
Eduard Khudainatov served as chairman and chief executive of the state-controlled oil company Rosneft before setting up his own energy business, Independent Oil and Gas Company, which has grown rapidly to become one of Russia’s top oil producers, with interests in extraction, refining and trading.
The EU said the 61-year-old businesman was associated with Putin, whose first presidential campaign he helped to organise in 2000, and his close ally Igor Sechin, who succeeded Khudainatov at the head of Rosneft. It said he had been blacklisted for “benefiting from the government of the Russian Federation” and being “associated with listed persons”. Sechin and Putin have been under EU sanctions since the invasion of Ukraine.
Khudainatov has kept a low profile when compared with Russian oligarchs such as Roman Abramovich. However, since the invasion he has come to international attention after being named in a court case as the owner of two luxury vessels – the $325m (£260m) Amadea and the $700m Scheherazade. The European sanctions listing did not reference Khudainatov’s alleged ownership of the superyachts.
The Amadea is the subject of a legal battle in Fiji, where it was seized on 19 April at the request of the US government which claims it belongs to the sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.
A trail of offshore companies and trusts reportedly links Khudainatov to the Amadea and to the Scheherazade, which is alleged to have been used by Putin. Lawyers acting for the British Virgin Islands company that owns the Amadea
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