US sanctions target has Estonian business interests
Kai Paananen, a Finnish citizen who was named on a US sanctions list on Thursday, is involved in a number of ventures in Estonia.
According to Postimees, Paananen owns Double Ten Trading, a real estate company in Estonia, since 2008, which in turn owns two companies, BS Logistics and BS Investors.
He also sits on the supervisory board of Fundus Securities, and a hotel (Langvik hotel in Helsinki) he owns in Finland, is the owner of Langvik Clearing Center OÜ, registered in Estonia.
All the above named Estonian-registered companies name real estate or stock market investments as their main activity, with Postimees reporting that the companies had little actual activity, but had a total of five million euros in assets between them.
The US announced 26 new names to the list of anti-Kremlin sanctions. The 11 individuals and 15 companies will not be able to conduct business with United States companies or citizens and their assets in the US will be frozen.
US authorities said the reason for extending the list does not lie in concrete actions by Russia, rather that these persons and companies have aided others previously banned by US.
Editor: J.M. Laats