WASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department on August 23 in a release stated that it has targeted companies and individuals “whose products and services enable Russia to sustain its military efforts and evade sanctions.”
United States has sanctioned about 400 more individuals and entities in Russia and China among others over their support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The US Treasury Department on August 23 in a release stated that it has targeted companies and individuals “whose products and services enable Russia to sustain its military efforts and evade sanctions.”
The sanctions list includes 34 Russians, including Pavel Belousov, the son of the Russian Defence Minister Andrey Belousov, Russian news agency TASS reported.
Apart from Russians and Chinese, citizens of Belarus, Italy, Turkey, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland have also been hit by the US sanctions.
Further, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that it is taking aggressive action to further restrict the supply of both US-origin and “US branded” (i.e., labeled) items to Russia and Belarus for the Kremlin’s illegal war on Ukraine.
BIS has added 123 entities under 131 entries to the Entity List– 63 entities in Russia or the Crimea Region of Ukraine, 42 in China including Hong Kong and 14 entities in Turkiye, Iran, and Cyprus. Since March 2022 the BIS has added 1,056 entries to the Entity List in response to Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and ongoing aggression against the country.
The United States government will continue to support Ukraine as it defends its independence and hold Russia accountable for its aggression, said the US Treasury Department.
“We remain concerned by the magnitude of dual-use goods exports from the PRC to Russia,” the State Department said in release on August 23. “Imports from the PRC are filling critical gaps in Russia’s defence production cycle, thereby enabling it to produce weapons, ramp up defense production, and bolster its military-industrial base,” it said.
Two major Chinese machine tool suppliers and six Chinese electronic component suppliers are also on the list of US sanctioned companies.
Several Chinese or Hong Kong companies were also sanctioned for their support of the Russian company Special Technology Center, which makes surveillance and reconnaissance drones, along with businesses from Russia, the UAE and Turkey.
“Russia has turned its economy into a tool in service of the Kremlin’s military industrial complex. Treasury’s actions today continue to implement the commitments made by President Biden and his G7 counterparts to disrupt Russia’s military-industrial base supply chains and payment channels,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo.
“Companies, financial institutions, and governments around the world need to ensure they are not supporting Russia’s military-industrial supply chains,” Adeyemo added.
The State Department said it is targeting entities and individuals involved in Russia’s future energy, metals, and mining production and exports, sanctions evasion, Russia’s military-industrial base, including armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) production, Belarusian support for Russia’s war effort, and air logistics entities; additional subsidiaries of State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom and malign actors involved in the attempted, forcible “re-education” of Ukraine’s children.
Hong Kong, Turkey and Russian business affiliates of Russian national Maxim Marchenko, who was arrested by the FBI in September 2023 for smuggling microelectronics out of the U.S., were also targeted in the August 23 sanctions package.