US targets steelmaker MMK in latest Russia sanctions

The US has targeted Russian steelmaker MMK and its majority owner Viktor Filippovich Rashnikov, among other individuals and companies, in its latest round of sanctions against Russian elites and businesses.

"As innocent people suffer from Russia's illegal war of aggression [in Ukraine], Putin's allies have enriched themselves and funded opulent lifestyles," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an Aug. 2 statement issued by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

"The Treasury Department will use every tool at our disposal to make sure that Russian elites and the Kremlin's enablers are held accountable for their complicity in a war that has cost countless lives," she added.

MMK is one Russia's largest integrated steel producers with operations across the steel production chain. The Treasury Department said the steelmaker is also "one of Russia's largest taxpayers, providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation."

"MMK and Rashnikov were designated today pursuant to [Executive Order] 14024 for operating or having operated in the financial services sector of the Russian Federation economy," the department added. "Rashnikov has also been sanctioned by Australia, Canada, the EU, Switzerland and the UK."

The Russian steelmaker produced 6.1 million mt of crude steel, 4.3 million mt of pig iron and 1.2 million mt of iron ore in the first half of 2022, according to its July earnings statement.

OFAC also designated two of the steel producer's subsidiaries, Russian investment company MMK-FINANS and Turkish steel manufacturer MMK Metalurji.