- The move targets the development of Russia’s defense and technology sectors and aims to weaken it in its war against Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (Agencies): The United States on Thursday tightened its grip on Russia’s international supply chains by sanctioning more than 200 individuals and companies, including entities in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, that it claims are helping Moscow in its war effort against Ukraine.
The latest effort is aimed at restricting the development of Russia’s defense and technology sectors as well as preventing foreign companies from moving goods into Russia that aid in the full-scale attack on Ukraine launched in February 2022.
Chinese, Emirati, Russian, Swiss and Turkish companies were on the latest sanctions list, which includes several logistics and financial services companies.
The State Department announced in a statement that it had designated several defense-related entities and procurement companies in the UAE and Russia that helped the Kremlin acquire components that officials call “high priority dual-use goods” to help with its war.
The Emirati companies hit by sanctions include Dream Lite Trading LLC, a business that allegedly supplied two Russia-based companies — the newly sanctioned Lanmax and the previously sanctioned AO Taskom — with multiple shipments of BIS-identified “high-priority” electronic components, whose status is determined by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) in the Department of Commerce.
The sanctioned UAE-based Bliksem Computers & Requisites Trading Company LCC was also accused of making multiple shipments of BIS-identified “high-priority” electronic components to companies based in Russia.
The Turkish companies sanctioned by the US Treasury encompassed electronic suppliers, manufacturers and logistics companies.
Also among the sanctioned is an unnamed major entity involved in the development, operation and ownership of Russia’s key Arctic LNG 2, its liquified natural gas (LNG) project in the Arctic region. Russia’s metals and mining sector was also targeted by the measures.
The US Treasury designated several Chinese companies that it said had conducted “hundreds of shipments” of technology to Russian companies, including China Taly Aviation Technologies Corp., which the Treasury claimed shipped radar components to a Russian state-owned missile manufacturer for use in advanced antiaircraft missile systems.
Western officials have pressured the UAE, an ally of the United States and much of the West, to stop helping Russia evade sanctions they’ve imposed as a result of the Ukraine war, now approaching its second year. The Emirates has become a popular place for Russians to base their businesses in their efforts to evade the sanctions.
“Recent actions taken — particularly by the UAE — are encouraging, and the U.S. looks forward to working with partners to verify that Russia is no longer able to exploit their jurisdictions,” said the Treasury Department in a release.
The secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, said in a statement that Russia was “dependent” on foreign individuals and businesses to restock its military.
“Our global sanctions coalition has choked off Russia’s access to key inputs for its military industrial complex and has undermined the Kremlin’s ability to wage its unprovoked war,” she said. “Today’s actions demonstrate our further resolve in continuing to disrupt every link of Russian [the] military supply chain, and target outside actors who would seek to support Russia’s war effort.”