The charges seem designed to get Firtash inside the U.S. and persuade him to cut a deal for information about Gazprom and people close to Putin, Ariel Cohen, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said by phone.

‘Severe Consequences’

“Firtash was very deeply involved in the fine print of Gazprom’s dealings in Ukraine, in the financial transactions,” said Korchemkin of East European Gas Analysis. “If Firtash strikes a deal with the FBI and starts to give testimony it could threaten severe consequences for Gazprom managers and the company itself.”

Any disclosure that shows Gazprom managers causing losses to U.S. investors, who hold more than half of the company’s depositary receipts, could lead to sanctions, major fines and lawsuits, Korchemkin said. Putin’s political protege, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, was Gazprom’s chairman in 2002-2008. Medvedev’s spokeswoman, Natalia Timakova, declined to comment on the possibility that the premier may face sanctions.

“These sanctions are designed to touch important people close to the Kremlin and have a geopolitical impact rather than a direct effect on earnings at other banks,” said Hadrien de Belle, an analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods, a New-York based financial services company. “This has to be perceived as going after the financial conduits for the wealth of the targets.”

Abramovich, Usmanov

Two other billionaires close to Putin, former Gazprom adviser Alisher Usmanov and Roman Abramovich, both of whom are shareholders of London soccer clubs, are prime candidates for sanctions, said Navalny, the opposition leader.

The bulk of Abramovich’s $14 billion wealth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, came from the sale of OAO Sibneft, the oil company he acquired for about $100 million in 1996. He sold it to Gazprom for $13 billion a decade later. Abramovich’s spokesman, John Mann, declined to comment.

Usmanov, 60, is Russia’s richest man, with a fortune of $17.4 billion. He cut his U.S. stock holdings this year, selling his shares in Apple Inc. and reducing his interest in Facebook Inc., according to Ivan Streshinskiy, head of Usmanov’s asset- management company USM Advisors LLC.

Sanctions are “counterproductive” for all parties involved because the global economy is interconnected, Usmanov told reporters in Moscow on March 20. He didn’t respond to requests for comment sent to his representatives.