Web of sanctions tightens around Nornickel
“Russia has turned its economy into a tool in service of the Kremlin’s military industrial complex,” Deputy Secretary of the U.S Treasury Wally Adeyemo said as an updated list of sanctions was announced on the 23rd of August.
“Companies, financial institutions, and governments around the world need to ensure they are not supporting Russia’s military-industrial supply chains,” Adeyemo underlined.
The new sanctions target Russia’s military-industrial base. They also take aim at the country’s metals and mining industry.
Among the companies affected is Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of refined nickel.
At least ten enterprises associated with the mining and metallurgy company are on the list. Included are several subsidiary units that provide construction and repair services, fuel supplies, transportation and logistics and research and development.
Among them is the Taymyr Energy Company, the enterprise that managed the fuel tanks that in 2020 ruptured and created an environmental catastrophe in the remote Arctic region.
The Norilsk Avia provides transport services to Nornickel’s facilities in and around Norilsk. The Pechengastroy is key provider of construction services to Nornickel’s activities in the Kola Peninsula.
Monchegorsk is industrial hub for Nornickel in the Kola Peninsula. Photo: Atle Staalesen
The U.S Treasury does not yet target Nornickel itself, nor its owner and CEO Vladimir Potanin. But the web is gradually tightening around the company’s core activities. On the sanctions list is now also GRK Bystrinskoye, the far eastern subsidiary that produces nickel for the Chinese market.
“The production and distribution companies of the group are not included in the U.S sanctions of 23rd of August 2024, [but] on the sanctions list are a series of the group’s service companies,” a representative of Nornickel told Interfax.
The core areas of Nornickel are located in the far northern regions of the Kola Peninsula and Taymyr. In both regions, the company has massively ruined vulnerable Arctic ecosystems.
Nornickel also owns and operates a major nickel refinery in Finland. The Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta is one of the largest nickel producers in Europe.
Nickel is a core component in production of armament and weaponry and of great demand for the military industrial complex.
