On Friday, The US Treasury Department hit Russia with “one of its most significant sanctions actions to date” to crack down on their brutal invasion of Ukraine. The new sanctions will target Russia’s “metals and mining sector, its financial institutions, its military supply chain and individuals and companies worldwide that are helping Moscow avoid existing sanctions.” Friday marks the one year anniversary of the invasion and the Biden administration has marked the anniversary by introducing these new measures.
These sanctions are meant to fill in areas where past sanctions have failed to deter Russian agression by impairing “key revenue generating sectors in order to further degrade Russia’s economy and diminish its ability to wage war against Ukraine.”
A White House memo describes the sanctions as effecting “over 200 individuals and entities, including both Russian and third-country actors across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East that are supporting Russia’s war effort.”
According to CNN:
Friday’s Treasury sanctions specifically target individuals and companies based outside of Russia that are connected to sanctions evasion, “including those related to arms trafficking and illicit finance,” the Treasury news release said.
The latest tranche of Treasury Department sanctions hit “over a dozen financial institutions in Russia, including one of the top-ten largest banks by asset value” – Credit Bank of Moscow Public Joint Stock Company – and wealth management firms. The Treasury Department explained that individuals under sanction have “been known to turn to smaller banks as well as wealth-management firms in an attempt to evade sanctions as Russia seeks new ways to access the international financial system.”
In a coordinated action, the US State Department announced a slew of sanctions on Friday, hitting “over 60 individuals and entities” who have been “complicit” in Moscow’s aggression toward Ukraine and “the illegitimate administration of occupied Ukrainian territories for the benefit of the Russian Federation,” Blinken said in a statement.
