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The Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC) announced a “change” in the composition of the company's owners in a statement on Thursday.

The statement says Gleb Trotsenko, the son of Russian billionaire Roman Trotsenko, who formerly held a beneficial ownership position in the company, no longer retains such status due to the alienation of all his indirect shares in ZCMC on October 27.

In fact, all of his indirect shares in the company have been alienated to Svetlana Ershova.

The move comes after the U.S. Department of State imposed sanctions on Gleb Trotsenko earlier in November. The change is obviously aimed at avoiding sanctions and saving the business.

According to experts and media reports, the blacklisting of Gleb Trotsenko by the U.S. State Department entails that the company would no longer be able to sell concentrate in foreign currency and receive credit funds in foreign currency. Incidentally, the company already fails to fulfill its obligations to the Armenian government.

In addition, more problems for ZCMC arose due to the intention of the Swiss fund, which acquired Mikhail Zurabov's stake, to sue the company.

Strikingly, sanctions-hit Gleb Trotsenko is being replaced by Svetlana Ershova, who could face sanctions either.

A little web search reveals that Svetlana Ershova has always been a member of Trotsenko's corporations, holding leadership positions.

For example, Ershova was deputy head of AEON Corporation formerly owned by Roman Trotsenko.

Svetlana Ershova also owned 99.01% stake in Profi, a company linked to Trotsenko which used to manage the Ulan-Ude airport.

It’s interesting who ZCMC wants to deceive with such steps – the Armenian government or the U.S. State Department? One thing is obvious: this will be a disservice, because the move may be seen by the State Department as an attempt to circumvent sanctions.