US sanctions 400 additional targets for helping Russia's war efforts
The State Department announced that the United States imposed sanctions Friday on more than 400 individuals and entities for supporting Russia's military effort in Ukraine. This included Chinese firms, which U.S. officials believed were helping Moscow skirt Western sanctions while building up its military.
Washington has warned Beijing repeatedly over its support of Russia's defence industrial base. It has also issued hundreds sanctions to limit Moscow's capability to exploit certain technologies in military applications.
According to a State Department document outlining the sanctions it has taken against 190 targets, Friday's measures include sanctions against Chinese companies involved in shipping microelectronics and machine tools to Russia.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced that it would also target transnational networks engaged in procuring weapons and other material for Russia, assisting Russian oligarchs to evade sanctions, and laundering gold on behalf of a sanctioned firm.
In a statement, Wally Adeyemo, Deputy Treasury Secretary was quoted saying that "Russia has transformed its economy into an instrument in service of Kremlin’s military industrial complex".
Companies, financial institutions and governments from around the globe need to make sure they do not support Russia's military industrial supply chains.
The Biden administration has also added 123 companies to its U.S. Export Control List, known as Entity List. This list requires that all supplies be licensed before being shipped to the targeted companies. According to an announcement published in the Federal Register, 63 of those added on Friday were in Russia and 42 others in China.
The Russian embassy in Washington has not responded to an immediate request for comment about the new sanctions.
In 2022, after seizing Crimea in 2014 from Ukraine, Russia launched an invasion on a large scale of its neighbor, which triggered a new wave of U.S. sanctions against Moscow.
On August 6, Ukraine sent thousands soldiers across the border to Russia's west Kursk region. Kyiv has announced a series of battlefield victories, but Russian forces have continued to advance steadily in eastern Ukraine.
The U.S. Treasury announced that it would impose sanctions on a number of Russian financial technology, securities and real estate lending firms.
State Department sanctions include measures aimed at stifling Russia’s energy sector, as well as against companies in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. believes that these companies are helping Russia to evade sanctions.
Aaron Forsberg is the State Department director of economic sanctions policy.
The State Department has targeted the Dalian Machine Tool Group import-export division of China, which it claims supplied $4 million worth of dual-use products to Russian companies.
The Treasury targeted over 20 Hong Kong- and Chinabased companies, which it claimed were supplying Russia’s military industry base.
The Chinese embassy in Washington has not responded to a comment request immediately.
China claims it did not provide Russia with weapons for the war in Ukraine but defends normal trade between China & Russia.
The new U.S. sanctions target firms that supply components for the Orlan drones, which Russia uses in Ukraine.
Washington also aimed to disrupt future energy plans in Russia, as well as its LNG shipment. The fact sheet said that the sanctions were aimed at Russia's Arctic LNG 2 project worth $21 billion, which had already been affected by Western sanctions, which have restricted its access to ice class tankers.
The sanctions targeted other companies that were involved in the LNG shipments. For example, the U.S. claims that White Fox Ship Management of the UAE recently purchased four LNG tankers. (Reporting and editing by Jamie Freed, Angus MacSwan and Jamie Freed; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom)
(source: Reuters)
