US lifts sanctions on Russian ex-finance minister Zadornov

The United States on Friday lifted sanctions on Mikhail Zadornov, a prominent Russian banker and former finance minister, according to the US Treasury Department.

A US official said the delisting did not signal a major change in Washington’s approach to sanctions against Russia.

Zadornov successfully petitioned the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to be removed from the sanctions list through the standard process, a second source familiar with the matter said.

No details of Zadornov’s specific case were immediately released, but the Treasury Department regularly receives and processes requests for removal from the sanctions list, the US official said.

‘Like the imposition of sanctions, the lifting of sanctions on individuals, or delisting, is a tool to achieve US foreign policy objectives,’ he said, adding that the aim of sanctions is not to punish but to ‘bring about a positive change in behaviour’ that serves US national interests.

(Reuters)