US sanctions 400 entities for aiding Russia’s war

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 US 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 US 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.

The Biden administration also added 123 entities to its US export control list known as the Entity List which 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.

The US 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.

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 US believes are helping Russia evade sanctions, the State Department said.

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 US sanctions include measures against firms supplying components used in the Orlan drones that Russia is using in Ukraine.

Washington also sought 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.