May 1 the Treasury Department issued sanctions targeting Russia’s military-industrial base and chemical and biological weapons programs, as well as companies and individuals in third countries that help Russia acquire key inputs for weapons or defense-related production.
“Treasury has consistently warned that companies will face significant consequences for providing material support for Russia’s war, and the U.S. is imposing them today on almost 300 targets,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen.
The action includes nearly 60 targets located in Azerbaijan, Belgium, the PRC, Russia, Slovakia, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Among the entities named are Chinese and Russian firms responsible for the manufacture and sale of nitrocellulose, a key ingredient in high explosives.
In addition to the nearly 200 targets sanctioned by the Department of the Treasury, [list] the Department of State is imposing sanctions on over 80 entities and individuals that are engaged in sanctions evasion and circumvention or are related to Russia’s chemical and biological weapons programs and defense industrial base.
The Department of State is concurrently delivering to Congress a determination pursuant to the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 (CBW Act) regarding Russia’s use of the chemical weapon chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops.
Pursuant to the CBW Act, the Department is re-imposing restrictions on foreign military financing, U.S. Government lines of credit, and export licenses for defense articles and national security-sensitive items going to Russia.
The Department also is sanctioning three Russian government entities associated with Russia’s chemical and biological weapons programs and four Russian companies that have contributed to such entities.
Among these actions, the Department is also sanctioning an additional three individuals in connection with the death of Aleksey Navalny in Russian Penal Colony IK-3.
The Department continues to designate entities involved in the development of Russia’s future energy production and export capacity.
Constraining Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 Project, the Department is designating two vessel operators involved in the transport of highly specialized liquefied natural gas (LNG) modules and gravity-based structure (GBS) equipment designed specifically for Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project.
The State Department is designating Hong Kong, Singapore and Russian companies providing maritime logistics and construction support for Russian energy projects, including Arctic LNG 2.
State is designating 12 entities within the Sibanthracite group of companies, one of Russia’s largest producers of metallurgical coal, as well as State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom (Rosatom) subsidiaries distributing machine tools for the enterprise.
Rosatom, which produces 43% of the world’s enriched uranium, continues to profit handsomely off of commerce with the West.
Rosatom is building 33 new reactors in 10 counties, and its subsidiaries exported around $2.2 billion worth of nuclear energy-related goods and materials last year, according to trade data from the Royal United Service Institute, a London think tank.
Europe has 19 Russian-designed reactors in five countries that are fully dependent on Russian nuclear fuel, according to reporting by VOA.
U.S. Senate approved on Tuesday legislation to bar imports of Russian uranium. U.S. nuclear power plants imported around 12% of their uranium from Russia in 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
In a related action, The Justice Department filed a forfeiture complaint against a set of aircraft landing gear for a Boeing 737-800 that was detained in September 2023 at Miami International Airport by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
The gear was purchased for $1.55 million for the benefit of a Kyrgyz Republic-based transhipper of dual-use items servicing the Russian Federation, in violation of U.S. sanctions on LLC RM Design and Development, which was designated by OFAC in July 2022.
Department of State Fact Sheet.
The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is issuing Russia-related General License 95, "Authorizing Civil Aviation Safety and Wind Down Transactions Involving Limited Liability Company Aviakompaniya Pobeda," Russia-related General License 96, "Authorizing Limited Safety and Environmental Transactions Involving Certain Blocked Persons or Vessels," and Russia-related General License 97, "Authorizing the Wind Down of Transactions Involving Certain Entities Blocked on May 1, 2024."
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