Sergei Gneev, Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo/AP
The United States has imposed sanctions on more than 500 targets for contributing to Russia's war machine.
The White House announced the move on Friday, a day before the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions focus on Russia's core financial infrastructure, as well as people and entities from other countries that the United States says are supplying critical technology and equipment to Russia and evading sanctions. .
In a statement released by the White House, President Biden said Ukraine was “running low on ammunition.” He urged the House to approve new military aid to Ukraine, which Republicans have blocked.
“History is taking note,” the president said. “Our failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will be remembered.”
According to the Treasury Department, the latest sanctions are the largest since Russia invaded Ukraine in earnest on February 24, 2022.
“There are some companies in these third countries that are intentionally providing resource and material support to the Russian military-industrial complex,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said at a press briefing Thursday night. Ta. “We're going to hold them accountable.”
According to the Ministry of Finance, among the sanctioned companies is Russia's state-run National Payment Card System Corporation, which operates a payment system widely used in Russia. A number of Russian companies that make tanks, lasers and other technology for the war effort have also been targeted.
More than 20 entities and individuals from third countries that help Russia with funding, technology and equipment have been added to the sanctions list. It also includes a Russian-Iranian network called the Ministry of Defense Logistics, which finances and produces one-way attack drones that Russia has used against critical infrastructure and other civilian targets in Ukraine. are doing.
Companies from China, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia, Germany and other countries have also been targeted for funding and exporting technology to Russia.
Mr. Adeyemo said the new sanctions, put in place in conjunction with the European Union and the United Kingdom, would help “put sand in the wheels of Russia's military-industrial complex.”
Some of the sanctions are a direct response to the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Arctic penal colony last week. The Biden administration holds Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government responsible for Navalny's death.
Adeyemo said these sanctions show that “the death of Alexei Navalny and the abuses that followed will not be forgotten or unresolved.”
It is unclear what impact the new sanctions will have. Over the past two years, Western countries have imposed about 2,000 sanctions on Russian companies, banks and individuals in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia's economy has withstood the shock largely thanks to oil revenues. Western countries have imposed a price cap on oil sales of $60 per barrel, which is enough to keep Russian crude in circulation but not at a profit.
The Biden administration announced that the Kremlin had lost 40% of its oil revenues. It would be more expensive, but the Russian government has found a way around the price cap by using its so-called shadow fleet, older vessels that transport Russian crude oil using methods that hide its origin.
The White House said other countries have helped Russia evade sanctions and help secure consumer goods and critical technologies such as semiconductors and lasers, and it hopes the new sanctions will help the United States. .