US unveils massive tranche of sanctions targeting Russia

The United States on Friday unveiled a massive tranche of sanctions in the latest effort to target Russia’s war machine as with war with Ukraine continues.

The United States on Friday unveiled a massive tranche of sanctions in the latest effort to target Russia’s war machine as the war with Ukraine continues. The sanctions from the US Treasury and State Departments hit nearly 400 people and entities both in and outside Russia, including China, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, according to a press release from the Treasury Department. The sanctions – unveiled ahead of Ukrainian Independence Day – specifically target those supporting the Russian supply chain and defense base, as well as those helping Moscow to evade current sanctions. They come as Ukraine has launched an audacious incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Treasury said it is targeting “numerous transnational networks, including those involved in procuring ammunition and military materiel for Russia, facilitating sanctions evasion for Russian oligarchs through offshore trust and corporate formation services, evading sanctions imposed on Russia’s cyber actors, laundering gold for a sanctioned Russian gold company, and supporting Russia’s military-industrial base by procuring sensitive and critical items such as advanced machine tools and electronic components.” It is “also targeting Russian financial technology companies that provide necessary software and IT solutions for Russia’s financial sector,” the press release said. At the same time, the State Department “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,” the Treasury Department press release said.