US sanctions 400 entities aiding Russia's war including Chinese firms

[August 24, 2024]  By Simon Lewis and David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on more than 400 entities and individuals for supporting Russia's war effort in Ukraine, the State Department said, including Chinese companies that U.S. officials believe are helping Moscow skirt Western sanctions and build up its military.

Washington has repeatedly warned Beijing over its support for Russia's defense industrial base and has already issued hundreds of sanctions aimed at restricting Moscow's ability to exploit certain technologies for military purposes.

Friday's sanctions include measures against companies in China involved in shipping machine tools and microelectronics to Russia, according to a State Department fact sheet outlining its sanctions against 190 targets.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it was also targeting transnational networks involved in procuring ammunition and other materiel for Russia, helping Russian oligarchs and others evade sanctions and laundering gold for a sanctioned company.

"Russia has turned its economy into a tool in service of the Kremlin's military industrial complex," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo was quoted as saying in the statement.

"Companies, financial institutions, and governments around the world need to ensure they are not supporting Russia's military-industrial supply chains."

The Biden administration also added 123 entities to its U.S. export control list known as the Entity List that forces suppliers to obtain licenses before shipping to targeted companies. Those added on Friday included 63 entities in Russia and 42 in China, according to a notice published in the Federal Register.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked the U.S. for the "additional strong sanctions" in a message on the X social media platform, saying they would further weaken Russia's ability to "wage an aggressive war against Ukraine."

"Pressure on the aggressor must be maintained and increased constantly as long as Russia continues its aggression," Zelenskiy added.

Russia's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new sanctions.

After seizing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, triggering a host of new U.S. economic sanctions on Moscow.

The war escalated on Aug. 6 when Ukraine sent thousands of soldiers over the border into Russia's western Kursk region. Kyiv has since announced a string of battlefield successes, but Russian forces continue to steadily inch forward in eastern Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury said it was imposing sanctions on several Russian financial technology, securities, real estate lending and other financial firms, but it stopped short of imposing sanctions against foreign banks for aiding transactions that support Russia's war effort.

The Treasury has warned banks since December that continued transactions in Russia's war economy could cut them off from the dollar-based financial system.

CHINA TARGETS

The State Department's sanctions include moves aimed at stifling Russia's energy sector and against companies in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Central Asian economies that the U.S. believes are helping Russia evade sanctions, the State Department said.

"Today's actions hit Russia where it hurts - degrading its ability to generate revenue through its energy projects and disrupting its acquisition of materiel to supply its war machine," said Aaron Forsberg, the State Department's director for economic sanctions policy and implementation.

Targets include the import-export arm of China's Dalian Machine Tool Group, which the State Department said had supplied $4 million of dual-use items to Russian companies.

The Treasury also targeted more than 20 Hong Kong and China-based firms it said were supplying Russia's military industrial base.

The spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, said Beijing "firmly opposes unilateral sanctions based on 'long-arm jurisdiction'" and added that "normal trade between China and Russia should not be undermined, still less turned into an instrument to smear and contain China."

The latest U.S. sanctions include measures against firms supplying components used in the Orlan drones that Russia is using in Ukraine.

Washington also sought with the sanctions to disrupt future energy projects in Russia and its shipment of liquefied natural gas. It targeted Russia's $21 billion Arctic LNG 2 project, which has already been hit by Western sanctions that have curbed its access to ice-class tankers, and other companies involved in future energy projects in Russia, according to the fact sheet.

The sanctions also targeted companies involved in the shipments, like UAE-based White Fox Ship Management, which the U.S. says recently acquired four tankers to ship LNG.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis and David Lawder; additional reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Jamie Freed, Angus MacSwan and Jonathan Oatis)

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