The Russian ship intercepted by French authorities in the English Channel as part of sanctions against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine and diverted on Saturday to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer is believed to belong to Promsvyazbank (PSB), one of the largest major banks in Russia, according to the United States.
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Once owned by Russian oligarch Dmitry Ananyev and his brother Alexei, the PSB was nationalized in 2018 by the Russian government which reallocated it to financing the defense industry and managing major defense contracts in as part of a program to help Moscow avoid further sanctions, according to the US Treasury Department.
“Since its transformation into a Russian state defense bank, the PSB has issued billions of dollars in financial support to Russian defense companies, and it currently manages almost 70% of the state contracts signed by the Russian Ministry of Defense”, say the American authorities who decided to place it under sanctions last Tuesday, just before the start of the war in Ukraine.
Five ships targeted by the United States
In this context, the United States has also decided to take action against five ships belonging to PSB Lizing OOO, a subsidiary of Promsvyazbank. The Baltic Leader, the freighter intercepted by France overnight from Friday to Saturday while transporting cars between the port of Rouen and Saint Petersburg in Russia, is included in the list published by the US Treasury Department. These five vessels are therefore likely to be seized under the sanctions regime decided by the United States against the PSB.
“All entities 50% or more owned, directly or indirectly, by the PSB are subject to the blocking,” the Treasury Department statement said detailing the US sanctions.
Promsvyazbank (PSB), however, denied on Saturday that it owned the boat, according to the Tass news agency, which itself belongs to the Russian state. The bank says the Baltic Leader was sold before the sanctions were imposed.
Three banks under EU sanctions
Promsvyazbank, along with Rossiya Bank and VEB, is one of the three Russian banks targeted by sanctions decided by European Union foreign ministers which came into force last Wednesday, according to West France. It is probably in this capacity that the Baltic Leader was intercepted and diverted by French customs officers. According to the maritime prefecture of the Channel, the 127-meter vessel is “strongly suspected of being linked to Russian interests targeted by the sanctions”.
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