Russia-based leading global iron ore and hot briquetted iron producer Metalloinvest has announced that the restrictive measures imposed by the European Union on February 28 against a number of Russian state and public figures and entrepreneurs, including Alisher Usmanov, will not affect the operations of the company. Metalloinvest said that it continues to carry out business as usual, fulfilling all obligations to its employees and partners, the company said in the statement.
Metalloinvest said that Mr. Usmanov owns less than 50 percent of USM Group’s parent company and does not control the group's enterprises. Therefore, the inclusion of Alisher Usmanov in the EU sanctions lists does not extend the effect of the relevant sanctions to USM’s companies.
However, the market is still watching developments closely and trading from Russia has already come to a halt as buyers do not want to risk payment issues which are affected by Russian banks being banned from the SWIFT payment system.