EU to add Russia’s biggest bank Sberbank and metals baron to black list

The European Union is set to add Russia’s biggest bank Sberbank and the head of giant zinc and copper firm UMMC to its black list of individuals and companies accused of supporting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, according a draft document seen by Reuters.

The new list of 48 officials and nine entities to be blacklisted, prepared by the EU foreign affairs service, also includes leaders of the Night Wolves motorcycle club, actors, politicians, the deputy head of a Russian security service, family members of sanctioned oligarchs and military people.

Adding Sberbank to the blacklist would freeze its assets in the West and completely prevent transactions, with the exception of financial operations for the trade in food and fertiliser, an EU official told Reuters.

Russia’s largest lender had already been excluded from the SWIFT bank messaging system, seriously hampering its ability to conduct business.

The head of zinc and copper giant UMMC, Andrei Kozitsyn, is being added to the blacklist because as a leading Russian businessman he is deemed to be “involved in economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government”, the document said.

The move, expected to be adopted on Wednesday, would take to 1,229 the total number of individuals listed by the EU over the war in Ukraine, and would increase to 110 the number of listed companies.