WASHINGTON, August 8. /TASS/. The US State Department is considering possible sanctions against Russian businessman and AFK Sistema key beneficiary Vladimir Evtushenkov under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen wrote on Twitter.

The Congresswoman said in response to her request to consider possible sanctions against Evtushenkov over alleged investment in construction in Crimea, the State Department confirms investigation "for possible sanctions under CAATSA + the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."

US Congress members from the Republican Party Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mark Walker in mid-May asked Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to consider the proposal to add Evtushenkov to the sanctions list. Ros-Lehtinen claimed that Evtushenkov’s company invested funds in construction in Crimea.

Earlier AFK Sistema, a major private investor in the real segment of Russia’s economy, denied that it had poured in funds in Crimea’s projects and received any US requests on the issue. The news about the letter sent by the Congress members broke on June 22. Against this backdrop, the company’s common shares dropped 6.5% at the Moscow Exchange.