Viktor Feliksovich Vekselberg (Vekselberg) is a prominent Russian businessman with an estimated net worth exceeding $6 billion who was previously designated on April 6, 2018 pursuant to E.O. 13662 for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy. Vekselberg’s extensive holdings, predominantly consolidated through his designated Renova Group of companies, span multiple sectors of the Russian Federation economy, and are intertwined with some of the GoR’s global initiatives, such as the Rusnano Group, one of the largest technological investors in Russia which provides a revenue source to the GoR.
Vekselberg has maintained close ties with leading GoR officials, including Putin and former Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev (Medvedev). Medvedev personally appointed Vekselberg to serve as director and president of the Skolkovo Foundation (SF), a GoR initiative aimed at creating a Russian version of Silicon Valley in order to elevate Russia’s international status as a leading innovation center for technological developments. Following his prior designation, Vekselberg no longer holds this position with SF. Furthermore, Vekselberg has taken part in Russian diplomatic and soft power activities on behalf of the Kremlin, accompanying GoR officials on cultural missions abroad.
E.O. 13662. On March 20, 2014, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, IEEPA, issued E.O. 13662. In E.O. 13662, the President expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in E.O. 13660 and expanded by E.O. 13661, finding that the actions and policies of the Government of the Russian Federation, including its purported annexation of Crimea and its use of force in Ukraine, continue to undermine democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine; threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; and contribute to the misappropriation of its assets, and thereby constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.
Section 1(a) of E.O. 13662 blocks, with certain exceptions, all property and interests in property that are in the United States, that come within the United States, or that are or come within the possession or control of any United States person, of any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State to, among other things, operate in such sectors of the Russian Federation economy as may be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, such as financial services, energy, metals and mining, engineering, and defense and related materiel.
