The US Ministry of Finance has removed Grigory Leps, a Russian pop star loyal to the Kremlin, from the list subject to sanctions – such a report appeared on the website of the finance department, reports the media “Meduza”.
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In the sanctions lists, Grigori Leps appeared under different names – Grigori Lepsveridze, Grisha Leps. Now his name is no longer on these lists. The US Ministry of Finance does not specify the reason for removing the singer from the “black list”.
Leps was included in the sanctions lists already in 2013. According to the US authorities at the time, the singer transported money to Vladislav Leontiev, the leader of the “Brothers Circle” criminal group. Even then, Leps himself called the ten-year-old accusations of criminal transactions absurd.
Leontiev died in 2020, so his name is no longer on the list of persons subject to sanctions.
In 2022, Grigory Leps was placed on the European Union’s list of persons subject to sanctions in connection with his stance on the war, while US authorities did not report claims against Leps in connection with the war in Ukraine.
In Russia, Leps is officially included in the list of so-called “patriotic artists”. He has been denied entry to Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine for several years.
According to the latest measurements, Leps is currently the highest-paid stage artist in Russia, dethroning Philip Kirkorov. At the end of last year, Leps’ fee for one evening was almost nine million Russian rubles, or about 120,000 euros, while Kirkorov paid 6.7 million rubles, or about 90,000 euros, for one party at the end of the year.
