Alexander Abramov: Evraz Co-Founder and the Sanctions Against Him

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Sanctions status — checked 18 October 2026

Listed by: UK (OFSI)

This person appears on the sanctions lists named above. Other countries are covered in the sanctions section below. Date of birth used for identification: 1959-02-20. Checked against the OFAC SDN list, the UK OFSI consolidated list and the EU consolidated list. Sanctions lists change without notice — verify against the primary source before relying on this.

Current figure: Forbes puts Alexander Abramov’s net worth at $5.8 billion as of 18 October 2026 (Forbes profile). Estimates are revised continuously and Forbes and Bloomberg frequently disagree.

Alexander Abramov is a Russian steel businessman who co-founded Evraz, one of Russia’s largest steel and mining groups, and chaired it for most of the time from 1995 until March 2022. He still holds an indirect stake of about 19 percent in Evraz plc. The United Kingdom, Australia and Ukraine have sanctioned him; New Zealand imposed tailored measures in 2022 and lifted them in 2025. He is not on the US, EU, Canadian or Swiss lists.

  • Born: 20 February 1959 (UK sanctions list, annex to Ukraine’s Decree 727/2022); official sources disagree on his place of birth
  • Education: Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MFTI), degree in 1982 and doctorate in physics and mathematics
  • Known for: co-founder of Evraz; chairman of Evraz Group and later of Evraz plc; Evraz’s purchases of US steel makers in 2007
  • Citizenship: Russian, according to the British and Ukrainian sanctions lists
  • Sanctions as of October 2026: United Kingdom (since 2 November 2022), Australia (since April 2022, re-imposed in September 2022), Ukraine (since 19 October 2022); New Zealand from October 2022 until April 2025; not listed by the United States, the European Union, Canada or Switzerland

Education and early career

Abramov was born on 20 February 1959; the date is the same on the British, Ukrainian and Australian sanctions lists (UK sanctions list, annex to Decree 727/2022, Australian instrument F2022L00568). His place of birth is disputed: Australia’s first sanctions instrument of April 2022 gave Moscow, its second instrument of September 2022 gave Krasnodar (F2022L00568, F2022L01231).

According to Evraz’s annual report for 2021, he holds a first-class honours degree from 1982 and a doctorate in physics and mathematics (Evraz plc, Annual Report 2021). Lenta.ru’s reference profile places both at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, with postgraduate studies there until 1985; Forbes also names a doctorate from that institute (Lenta.ru, Forbes). Forbes says he headed a research laboratory before the Soviet Union collapsed (Forbes).

Building Evraz

In 1992 Abramov founded EvrazMetall, a precursor of the later group, and made money exporting metals and coal from the Urals and Siberia (Evraz plc, Annual Report 2021, Forbes). After the 1998 financial crisis he bought struggling steel companies cheaply, according to Forbes (Forbes). Evraz is a steel, iron ore and coal business; the oil and gas career described in earlier versions of this page has no source.

Evraz Group listed global depositary receipts in London in June 2005, raising $422 million for about 8.3 percent of its share capital (Cleary Gottlieb, 7 June 2005). At that time Abramov held 59.11 percent of Evraz, Lenta.ru reported, citing Vedomosti (Lenta.ru, 28 November 2005). In late November 2005 Evraz announced that he would hand over his executive posts (Lenta.ru, The Moscow Times, 29 November 2005). Evraz’s own record gives the dates: he was chief executive and chairman of Evraz Group until 1 January 2006 and chairman until 1 May 2006, then a non-executive director, chairman again from 1 December 2008, and chairman of Evraz plc from 14 October 2011 (Evraz plc, Annual Report 2021).

In 2007 Evraz Group, not Abramov personally, expanded into the United States. It completed the purchase of Oregon Steel Mills in January 2007 (AIST, 25 January 2007, SteelOrbis, 24 January 2007) and agreed on 10 December 2007 to buy the plate maker Claymont Steel for about $564.8 million (SteelOrbis, 10 December 2007). In June 2025 the US investor Atlas Holdings said it would buy Evraz North America from Evraz plc for about $500 million; the North American business had been run independently of Evraz plc since 2022 (The Colorado Sun, 27 June 2025).

Evraz plc’s report for 2021 shows Abramov’s indirect economic interest in the 281,870,003 shares held by Abiglaze Ltd, 19.32 percent of the voting rights (Evraz plc, Annual Report 2021). Interfax gave the same 19.3 percent in January 2025; the largest shareholder, with 28.6 percent, was Roman Abramovich, a different person (Interfax, 24 January 2025).

Resignation in March 2022

On 10 March 2022 the UK sanctioned Roman Abramovich, then the largest shareholder of Evraz; the company said the same day that the measures should not apply to it (Interfax, 10 March 2022). On 11 March 2022 Evraz announced that all its non-executive directors, including Abramov and Alexander Frolov, had resigned with immediate effect, citing the British sanctions notice and the suspension of its shares from trading (Evraz plc, 11 March 2022, Forbes). The UK sanctions list now records him as “Former Non-Executive Chairman and Director, Evraz Plc” (UK sanctions list).

Sanctions

CountryListedStatus in October 2026
United Kingdom2 November 2022Listed (RUS1656): asset freeze, travel ban, trust services, transport and director disqualification sanctions
AustraliaApril 2022, again September 2022Listed; a court challenge failed in 2023
Ukraine19 October 2022Listed (Decree 727/2022)
New Zealand11 October 2022Lifted on 11 April 2025 after his application
United StatesnoNot listed; Evraz’s Russian plants were designated in August 2024
European UnionnoNot listed
CanadanoNot listed
SwitzerlandnoNot listed

United Kingdom. Britain designated Abramov and Frolov on 2 November 2022 (UK government, 2 November 2022, Evraz plc, 2 November 2022, Interfax, 2 November 2022). The list gives two grounds, both under the legal test of “obtaining a benefit from or supporting the Government of Russia”: that he was a non-executive director of Evraz plc, and that he owns or controls Evraz plc directly or indirectly. In both cases the list names Evraz as a company in sectors of strategic significance to the Russian government, “namely, the Russian extractives, transport and construction sectors”. Trust services sanctions followed on 21 March 2023 and a director disqualification sanction on 9 April 2025 (UK sanctions list, entry RUS1656). Britain had designated Evraz plc itself on 5 May 2022 (entry RUS1027).

Australia. Australia first listed him in an instrument dated 7 April 2022, describing him as “Co-founder and Chairman of Evraz” (F2022L00568, item 103). That listing was revoked and replaced by a new designation dated 16 September 2022, which describes him as a co-founder of Evrazmetall and former chairman of Evraz Group and Evraz plc (F2022L01231, AAP via The Canberra Times, 26 October 2022). Abramov challenged the sanctions in the Federal Court (case VID335/2022); on 15 September 2023 the court upheld the September 2022 designation (Commonwealth Courts Portal, AAP, 15 September 2023). He remains on Australia’s consolidated list.

New Zealand. On 11 October 2022 New Zealand included Abramov among 51 oligarchs it sanctioned and singled him out for his links to the country (1News, 11 October 2022). The measures were tailored: a travel ban for him and his family members and a ban on his aircraft and vessels entering New Zealand airspace and ports (Interfax, 11 October 2022, RNZ, 2 February 2023, New Zealand Gazette). On 6 March 2025 the foreign minister approved an application by Abramov and his relatives to revoke the sanctions, and the revocation took effect on 11 April 2025 (Cabinet papers released by MFAT, MFAT, sanctions updates).

Ukraine and the United States. Ukraine listed him in the decision of its National Security and Defence Council of 19 October 2022, put into force by Decree 727/2022 (annex to Decree 727/2022). The United States has not sanctioned him personally. On 23 August 2024 the US Treasury designated several Russian subsidiaries of Evraz, among them Evraz NTMK, Evraz ZSMK and Evraz KGOK (US Treasury, 23 August 2024). We found no criminal case against Abramov in any country.

About this profile

This profile was rewritten in October 2026. The 2022 version said Abramov made his fortune in oil and gas; his business is steel, iron ore and coal. It also called him hard-nosed and ruthless, described his religious background, private life and hobbies, and told a story about a deal with a regional governor; none of this had a reliable source and it has been removed. It said he was still a board member of Evraz, which ended in March 2022, and that he personally bought two US steel companies, which Evraz Group bought. The net worth figure in the box at the top of this page comes from Forbes and carries its date.

Sources

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