Megafon announced the absence of a direct impact of US sanctions on business

The new US sanctions imposed against MegaFon will not have a direct impact on business, subscribers and services. Representatives of the company reported this to Vedomosti.

“Issued after the announcement of the inclusion of our company in the sanctions list, the OFAC license says that the restrictions imposed by the United States do not apply to us for any services in the field of communications and payments for them. This essentially means that the decision of the American regulator does not have a direct significant impact on our business, our subscribers and the services provided to them, including roaming services,” the operator’s representatives commented.

“Megaphone” considers the fact that the company was included in the “black list” “unreasonable and illogical” and will dispute it. Representatives of the company inform the partners that the company’s activities are not considered sub-sanctioned, and provide all the necessary documents and explanations on this issue, the report said.

On April 12, the US Treasury imposed sanctions against MegaFon, adding the company to the SDN list. The pretext for imposing restrictions was that its owner is the USM Group, which is 49% owned by businessman Alisher Usmanov. It has been under US sanctions since 2022.

The SDN list prohibits US companies from interacting with organizations from this “black list” in any way. MegaFon is prohibited from exporting, selling or supplying any telecommunications equipment, providing services in the United States, or receiving software. For this reason, Megafon applications will disappear from Google Play and the App Store. At the same time, general license No. 65 allows the operator to continue to provide communication services, export, sell or supply telecommunications equipment. Full document available link.