US removes Russian national Mikhail Zadornov from sanctions list

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - The United States on Friday removed sanctions against Mikhail Zadornov, a prominent Russian banker and former finance minister, according to the U.S. Treasury Department website.

A U.S. official said the delisting did not reflect a larger change in Washington's position on Russian sanctions.

Zadornov, who was placed on the sanctions list in 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, successfully petitioned Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to be removed from the sanctions list via the normal process, a second source familiar with the matter said.

No details were immediately disclosed about Zadornov's specific case, but Treasury routinely receives and handles requests for removal from the sanctions list, a U.S. official said.

"Like the imposition of sanctions, removal of sanctions on persons, or delisting, is a tool to realize U.S. foreign policy goals," the official said, adding that the goal of sanctions was not to punish but "to bring about a positive change in behavior" that is in the U.S. national interest.

Zadornov, a former Parliament budget chairman and veteran of several Russian governments, served as the country's finance minister from 1997 to 1999, before moving to head VTB24, the retail arm of Russia's second largest bank VTB.

He then served as chief executive of Russia's Otkritie Bank from 2018 to 2022, managing its recovery after a rescue by the Central Bank of Russia, which was acquired by VTB at the end of 2022.