US sanctions Russian potash Uralkali chairman

Chemezov, a close friend of President Vladimir Putin, lived in the same East German apartment complex as Putin when the later was stationed there as a KGB officer in the late 1980s, The Washington Post reports. He is also the head of state-owned Rostec, a major arms and technology exporter, which has long supplied Boeing with titanium for its airplanes and has projects with Canadian aircraft-maker Bombardier and Italian tire company Pirelli.

Russia’s gas industry, a major market for oilfield minerals, has also been targeted by the White House sanctions, Bloomberg reported.

Officials in Washington are warning Moscow they have an arsenal of “sectorial sanctions” in reserve that could cripple Russia’s economy as they target the banking system, oil and gas, and the mining industry.

The US Treasury abandoned plans to place Gazprom chief Alexei Miller on the blacklist after pleas from Germany and other EU countries alarmed by possible disruptions of gas supplies. It also spared the company’s financial arm, Gazprombank.

However the company warned Tuesday that any further expansion of sanctions against Russia would start to affect its business and its share price.