A Russian politician handpicked by President Vladimir Putin to run Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city, was sentenced to 40 months in prison by a London court on Friday for violating UK sanctions. Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, 48, was found guilty earlier this week of six offenses of evading sanctions and two of having or using criminal property the first such conviction in Britain.
Ovsiannikov was governor of Sevastopol in 2016, two years subsequent to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Following his subsequent removal from the position of Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, he moved to London and attempted to have the EU-imposed sanctions on him removed. The British prosecutors, however, exposed that he had improperly accessed money to maintain a life of luxury.
The court was told that Ovsiannikov’s wife, Ekaterina Ovsiannikova, paid £76,000 (approximately $97,000) into his account, some of which was spent on the purchase of a Mercedes-Benz SUV. His brother, Alexei Owsjanikow, bought and insured the vehicle and paid more than £41,000 ($53,500) for Ovsiannikov’s children’s fees at their private school.
While Ovsiannikov was sentenced and imprisoned, his brother was given a 15-month suspended sentence. Ovsiannikov’s wife was acquitted on all charges, and the jury was deadlocked on a seventh count of sanction evasion.
Graeme Biggar, Director General of the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA), highlighted the importance of the decision. “Dmitrii Ovsiannikov and his family well understood he was sanctioned and went out of their way to seek to circumvent those prohibitions,” he stated. “These convictions confirm that both sanctioned subjects and their facilitators are within our reach.
When first charged in 2023, the NCA confirmed Ovsiannikov as the UK’s first individual prosecuted for breaching sanctions related to Russia. The case is a landmark in Britain’s anti-Kremlin asset crackdown.
