(CNN) The US Treasury Department on Friday took what it called “one of the most significant sanctions actions to date” to crack down on those helping Moscow’s war against Ukraine, targeting Russia’s metals and mining sector. financial institutions, military supply chains and individuals and companies around the world helping Moscow evade existing sanctions.
These latest actions by the Treasury Department are among a series of new measures announced by the Biden administration on Friday intended to strengthen Kyiv and prevent those who support Moscow from entering the war in its second year with no signs of letting up.
Friday’s sweeping actions are intended to fill gaps in existing sanctions imposed over the past year of war and are intended to damage “key revenue-generating sectors to further destabilize Russia’s economy.” and reducing its ability to wage war against Ukraine,” according to a White House fact sheet.
The administration on Friday imposed sanctions against a total of “more than 200 individuals and entities, including Russian and third-country actors across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East who support the effort to war with Russia,” according to the White House fact sheet.
The latest tranche of Treasury Department sanctions targets a total of 22 individuals and 83 entities, according to a Treasury Department news release, and was taken in coordination with the Group of 7 countries .
The US State Department also imposed sanctions on several Russian officials and entities involved in the war and will take “steps to impose visa restrictions on 1,219 members of the Russian military, including officers, for actions that threaten or violate the sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence of Ukraine,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Three Russian military officers — Artyom Igorevich Gorodilov, Aleksey Sergeyevich Bulgakov, and Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Vasilyev — will be barred from entering the US for their involvement “in gross human rights violations committed against civilians in Ukraine and prisoners of war,” Blinken said. .
In addition to the sanctions, the US Commerce Department on Friday took “a number of export control actions, listing nearly 90 Russian companies and third countries, including China among other countries, on the Entity List for participating in sanctions avoidance and backfill activities in support of Russia’s defense sector,” the White House fact sheet said.
“Our economic sanctions, export controls, and tariffs announced this week, in coordination with the G7, show that we will continue to work with our allies and partners to increase pressure on President Putin, will make it more difficult for him to wage his brutal war. , and continue to reduce Russia’s economic ability to continue aggression,” Blinken said.
Targeting sanctions avoidance
Friday’s Treasury sanctions specifically target individuals and companies based outside of Russia connected to sanctions evasion, “including those related to arms trafficking and illegal finance,” the news release said. Treasury.
For weeks, Biden administration officials have been previewing plans to crack down on those helping Moscow work around sanctions to continue its war against Kyiv. Top State Department official Victoria Nuland detailed some of the efforts to avoid sanctions Thursday, describing Russia as “importing 1000% more laptops, iPhones, dishwashers from third countries, not because they need, you know, to work at home on their laptops but so. they can cannibalize this machinery to get the advanced chips that we deny them so they can do more rockets, etc.”
“We’re going to take out the evaders,” Nuland said last week.
Among those sanctioned by the Treasury Department on Friday were Swiss-Italian businessman Walter Moretti “and his network of associates and companies” – including companies based in Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Malta, Bulgaria and Russia – which the Treasury Department says “covertly purchased sensitive Western technologies and equipment for Russian intelligence services and the Russian military, including hydraulic presses, armament packages, and armor plating.”
“Moretti and his associates also purchased equipment for Russia’s nuclear weapons laboratories,” the Treasury Department said.
State Department charges ‘complicated’ Russian officials
In a coordinated action, the United States Department of State announced a number of sanctions on Friday, which hit “more than 60 individuals and entities” that were “complicit” in Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine and “the illegitimate administration of the occupied territories of Ukraine for the benefit of the Russian Federation,” Blinken said in a statement.
“These targets include government ministers, governors, and high-level Russian officials, as well as six individuals and three entities operating in parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia, which facilitate to steal grain, and manage for Russia,” he said.
The State Department has sanctioned “those involved in Russia’s illegitimate control of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine,” Blinken said, noting that “the Russian military attacks, and the next seizure of ZNPP, only highlights the world’s concerns related to nuclear energy. security and undermines the Kremlin’s efforts to portray itself as a responsible supplier of nuclear energy products.”
“Furthermore, the Department has designated three key enterprises that develop and operate Russian nuclear weapons as well as three Russian civil nuclear entities under the Rosatom organizational structure. In doing so these action, we emphasize that Russia uses its energy resources, including in the nuclear sector, to exert political and economic pressure on its customers around the world,” said the leading US diplomat.
The State Department also sanctioned four individuals and 22 entities in Russia’s advanced technology sector, Blinken said, adding that they were specifically “targeting manufacturers and developers of hardware and software for Russia’s intelligence-gathering capabilities through the System for Operational-Search Measures as part of our efforts to reduce Russia’s capacity to violently expand its imperial project around the world.”
In addition, they hit three companies “involved in the expansion of future energy production and export capacity in Russia,” including those “involved in the design and construction of the Sever Bay Terminal as part of the projects of Vostok oil,” Blinken said.
The Treasury Department has hit out at Russian financial institutions
The latest tranche of Treasury Department sanctions hit “more than a dozen Russian financial institutions, including one of the top ten largest banks by asset value” — Credit Bank of Moscow Public Joint Stock Company — and wealth management companies. The Treasury Department explained that individuals subject to sanctions “have been known to turn to small banks as well as wealth management companies in an attempt to evade sanctions as Russia seeks new ways to -access to the international financial system.”
The agency also imposed sanctions on Nurmurad Kurbanov, “a Russian-Turkmen arms dealer who represents Russian and Belarusian defense companies abroad” and Aleksandr Yevgenyevich Udodov, a Russian businessman with ties to of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who is accused of illegal financial activities. .
In addition to targeting those involved in sanctions evasion, the Treasury Department has taken actions intended to weaken Moscow’s military supply chains.
The latest sanctions hit “several Russian-based entities involved in the production of carbon fiber and related materials” — materials that are “used in virtually all defense-related platforms including aircraft, ground combat vehicles, ballistic missiles, and military personal protective equipment. , as well as other weapons systems.” They also imposed sanctions on companies tied to Russia’s aerospace, technology and electronics sectors.
“As the Ukrainian people continue to courageously defend their homeland and their freedom, the United States is proud to support Ukraine through economic, security, and humanitarian assistance,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. “Last year, we took actions with a historic coalition of international partners to bring down Russia’s military-industrial complex and reduce the revenues it uses to finance its war.”
“Our sanctions have both short-term and long-term effects, which are seen as severe in Russia’s struggle to replenish its weapons and its remote economy,” he said.
