Systema, RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit, said on June 4 that it had discovered the name and details of a person who it believes is Yelizaveta Peskova, the daughter of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in the national taxpayer registry of Kazakhstan.
Systema said it found personal data in online sources that aligns with Peskova, adding she most likely received an individual identification number (IIN) in the Central Asian nation before September 2022 since it was registered when Astana was still officially known as Nur-Sultan.
The capital used that name between March 2019 and September 2022.
An IIN allows individuals to get social benefits and simplifies the process of opening bank accounts in Kazakhstan.
Tens of thousands of Russian citizens, including celebrities and other luminaries, have obtained an IIN in Kazakhstan to avoid sanctions imposed on Russian banks and companies over Moscow’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported.
Kazakhstan’s Agency of Financial Control has said that 9.2 billion tenges ($21.5 million at the time) belonging to Kazakh citizens have been frozen in branches of several Russian banks in Kazakhstan due to the international sanctions.
Systema said it is not clear if Peskova used her Kazakh IIN to open bank accounts in Kazakhstan.
Neither Peskova nor her father immediately commented on the report.
Peskova was hit by Western sanctions over her father’s activities in support of Moscow’s actions against Ukraine.
She has called the sanctions “unjust and ungrounded,” insisting she has nothing to do with “the situation in Ukraine.”
In May 2022, Kazakh banks had to tighten procedures for issuing payment cards to Russian citizens as banks in Kazakhstan were flooded by tens of thousands of Russian citizens seeking to open bank accounts and obtain credit cards after global payment giants Mastercard and Visa suspended operations in Russia due to the sanctions.
Several bank officials in Kazakhstan said at the time that the uncontrolled issuance of payment cards to Russian citizens may lead to Western sanctions against them.
