A small number of Cypriot passport holders were listed on Tuesday on the UK’s financial sanctions list, including one businessman allegedly linked to Roman Abramovich, former owner of Chelsea football club.
The UK government published its updated list of financial sanctions targets – individuals and corporate entities subject to asset freezes inside the United Kingdom.
The list includes 13 individuals who are Cypriot nationals or hold a Cypriot passport. Only two are Cypriot-born, the rest are dual nationals – Russians with a Cypriot passport.
Demetris Ioannides is listed as the managing director of a Limassol-based company by the name of Meritservus HC Limited, which itself is under sanctions. The company provides trust services.
The document states that Ioannides is “an involved person” on the grounds that he “is acting on behalf of or at the direction of a person who is or has been involved in obtaining a benefit from or supporting the government of Russia”.
That person is named as Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich, the former owner of Chelsea. Ioannides himself was added to the UK sanctions list in April 2023.
The other Cypriot-born person is Christodoulos Georgiou Vassiliades. He is said to provide, or have provided, professional services to a sanctioned individual by the name of Alisher Usmanov.
“It is reasonable to suspect that Vassiliades receives a benefit from the professional services he provides to Usmanov,” the document states.
Vassiliades is also director of Sberbank Investments Limited, a Cyprus-based subsidiary 100 per cent owned by Pjsc Sberbank. The latter is a Russian bank owned by the Russian ministry of finance.
“Sberbank Investments Limited is therefore a company carrying on business as a government of Russia-affiliated entity. Therefore, Vassiliades is involved in obtaining a benefit from or supporting the government of Russia.”
Vassiliades was added to the sanctions list in April 2023.
The other Cyprus-related individuals are Russian nationals who also have a Cypriot passport.
They are: Mikail Safarbekovich Gutseriev; Ilya Borisovich Brodskiy; Pavel Ezoubov (said to be associated with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska); Yulia Andreevna Guryeva-Motlokhova; Alexey Ivanovich Isaykin; Sanjar Zunnurovich Ismailov; Sarvar Ismailov; Mikhail Vasilyevich Klyukin; Varvara Andreevna Skoch; Vadym Oleksandrovich Tregub; and Sergei Sergeevich Tregub.
In addition to these individuals, two Cyprus-tied organisations appear on the UK sanctions list. The first is Meritservus HC Limited, and the second is Sovcomflot, a Russian public joint-stock company with a subsidiary in Cyprus.
