New US Sanctions Target Exporters to Russia, More Russian Firms
The U.S. this week sanctioned more than 100 people, entities and ships supporting Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine, including one of its top metals producers and leading construction companies, Kyrgyz Republic firms sending Moscow dual-use technologies, and other businesses helping the government evade international sanctions. The new designations are meant to further restrict Russia’s ability to import military goods and technology, slash revenue from its mining sector, undermine its energy capabilities and “degrade Russia’s access to the international financial system,” the Treasury Department said.
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Along with the new designations, the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued two new general licenses, including one that authorizes certain transactions with newly sanctioned Joint Stock Company Ural Mining and Metallurgical Co., a leading Russian producer of copper, zinc, gold, silver and other metals. Another license authorizes certain transactions with several Russia-based commercial banks: JSC Petersburg Social Commercial Bank, Joint Stock Company Locko Bank, Unistream Commercial Bank JSC, JSC Commercial Bank Solidarnost and JSC Tinkoff Bank. Both licenses authorize the wind down of transactions with those entities or certain subsidiaries through 12:01 a.m. EDT Oct. 18.
The new sanctions also target several Kyrgyz Republic companies, which OFAC said have been “frequent exporters of controlled electronics components and other technology” to Russia since its invasion of Ukraine last year. LLC RM Design and Development, which was created in March 2022, sells electronic and telecommunication equipment and parts to Russia and has been a “prolific shipper" of dual-use goods to the country. OFAC said it has sent “hundreds” of shipments of semiconductor devices, electronic integrated circuits and capacitors to Russian companies, including industrial supplier Basis Trade Prosoft LLC, electronics component importer OOO Radiotekhsnab and electronic equipment supplier Region-Prof LLC.
OFAC also sanctioned Kyrgyz Republic-based ZAO GTME Tekhnologii -- which has shipped “dozens” of “high-priority” controlled goods to Russia, including tantalum capacitors and electronic integrated circuits -- and OSOO Kargolayn, a Kyrgyz Republic company that has shopped millions of dollars of foreign-made aviation equipment to Russia, including to airlines subject to U.S. export controls. One of GTME Tekhnologii’s “primary” customers is Russia-based Technologies Systems and Complexes Limited, an electronics and digital equipment vendor.
The U.S. also sanctioned several entities helping Russia finish construction of “key future energy projects,” the State Department said in a fact sheet, including top engineering and construction company AO Nipigazpererabotka and its subsidiaries Obshestvo S Ogranichennoj Otvetstvennostyu Nipigaz IT and Obshestvo S Ogranichennoj Otvetstvennostyu Nipigaz Aktiv. Other companies were sanctioned for providing “key logistical support” to Russia’s energy projects, including Russian logistics firm Sakhalin Shipping Co., two of its subsidiaries and 14 of its vessels.
Other designations target additional subsidiaries of Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear energy company; defense entities and procurement companies that import and distribute various technologies, including computer chips; Russian private military companies and Russian firms developing aerospace technologies; and various Russian government officials and “elites.” OFAC also sanctioned various Russian munitions factories, weapons parts producers, makers of parts used in aerospace systems and chemical-related equipment producers, among others.