Syed Rahman identifies the issues in what is the first case of its type
Former Russian politician Dmitrii Ovsiannikov has been jailed for 40 months for breaches of UK sanctions.
Ovsiannikov, who had been a politician with Russia’s ruling party, was found guilty of circumventing UK financial restrictions on daily living expenses.
Judge Sara Cockerill also imposed a sentence of 15 months - suspended for 15 months - on Ovsiannikov’s brother Alexei Owsjanikow. Owsjanikow was found guilty of two counts of circumventing the same sanctions regime by paying £40,000 private school fees for Ovsiannikov's children.
First
The convictions and sentences are the first in the UK for violation of its sanctions on Russia and connected individuals.
The judge told London’s Southwark Crown Court that the breaches of sanctions did not involve "particularly sophisticated offending" and related to relatively small amounts of money. But she said that had to be balanced against the importance of Britain's foreign policy objectives, although she added that she gave "limited weight" to the fact that the offending occurred amid the war in Ukraine.
Judge Cockerill said Ovsiannikov and Owsjanikow were not motivated by financial gain but by wanting to help the children move to a new school in a new country. Ovsiannikov’s wife Ekaterina Ovsiannikova had been acquitted days earlier. The judge postponed confiscation proceedings in the case until May 14.
Multi-agency
It is worth noting that this was a National Crime Agency and Crown Prosecution Service prosecution. It underscores the increased multi-agency focus of UK sanctions.
The case also shows the government's commitment to using the full range of enforcement tools, including criminal prosecution, and indicates that there is a risk of prosecution in all circumstances.
Having said that, the sums involved are modest. A custodial sentence may, therefore, seem disproportionate to some extent. But this is obviously foreign policy driven. There is a lack of clarity in the UK sanctions regime (post- Brexit), which raises a real concern. The divergence between the European Union and UK sanctions regimes has created an uncertain legal environment. Cases like this have a chilling effect on not only those who are designated, but also on those who are associated with the designated person.
Designated
Ovsiannikov had been designated after President Vladimir Putin appointed him governor of Russian-occupied Sevastopol. He had been accused of accepting £76,000 in cash and use of a £54,000 Mercedes car, in circumvention of the financial restrictions imposed on him, as well as two counts of money laundering.
His 2017 designation by the European Union was annulled by the European Court of Justice in 2022 after he successfully argued that he had lost his position as a minister involved in industry and trade. But he continued to be sanctioned in Britain, which had implemented its own sanctions regime after Brexit.
Ovsiannikov arrived in the UK from Türkiye in February 2023 after obtaining a UK passport and moved in with his wife and children in London. The judge said that there was force in Ovsiannikov’s argument that he believed it would be a formality to overturn UK sanctions because he had managed to do so in Europe. But she added that he must have understood that he remained sanctioned, as he had written to officials shortly after entering the UK to seek to be removed from the designated list.
