[JURIST] Vladimir Yevtushenkov [Forbes profile], Sistema’s [official website] chairman and largest shareholder, was placed on house arrest Tuesday after being accused of money laundering. Yevtushenkov is one of Russia’s richest men and is estimated by Forbes to be worth approximately USD $4.5 billion. Sistema insists that the charges are baseless, though they saw a 28 percent drop in shares when the market opened on Wednesday. There has been speculation that the arrest was linked to Vladimir Putin’s [BBC profile, JURIST news archive] interest in Yevtushenkov’s oil assets. Sistema currently controls Bashneft [website], one of the few Russian oil producers not controlled by the state.

Yevtushenkov’s arrest may also cause difficulties in the Russian investment climate, which has already been affected by sanctions from the ongoing conflict [BBC timeline] with Ukraine. Last month a new set of economic sanctions against Russia, agreed on by the EU [RIA report], took effect. These sanctions are expected to cause more damage to the Russian economy than those imposed earlier this year, though economists and analysts expect Western economies to be impacted by them as well. The sanctions target [Reuters report] the country’s energy, banking and defense sectors and include a ban on the purchase or sale of new bonds, stocks or long-term debts from some Russian banks. The new Russian discount airline Dobrolet suspended all flights [JURIST report] as a result of tightening EU sanctions against Dobrolet and Russia. In response Putin banned all imports [JURIST report] of agricultural products from the US and fruit and vegetables from Europe.