A former Russian government minister who was appointed as a governor in illegally annexed Crimea by Vladimir Putin has been found guilty of circumventing sanctions, in the first case of its kind.

The 48-year-old, wearing a navy suit, did not visibly react as the verdicts were read out.

His brother, Alexei Owsjanikow, 47, was convicted of two counts of circumventing sanctions by paying school fees of £41,027 for his sibling’s children.

The case is the first prosecution in the UK regarding a breach of sanctions under the Russian Regulations 2019, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Under the original asset freeze, Ovsiannikov – who also served as the Russian Federation’s deputy minister for industry and trade before he was dismissed and expelled from the ruling United Russia party in 2020 – was not even allowed to buy groceries.

Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, the former governor of Sevastopol, was accused of deliberately avoiding sanctions by opening a Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) account and having tens of thousands of pounds transferred to it by his wife, Ekaterina Ovsiannikova.

He was found guilty at Southwark crown court on Wednesday of six out of seven counts of circumventing sanctions between February 2023 and January 2024.

The jury failed to reach a verdict on the final charge