WASHINGTON, December 14. /TASS/. The US Department of Commerce on Tuesday temporarily suspended export privileges of three individuals and two legal entities for unauthorized exports of ‘sensitive items’ to Russia, the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said in a statement.
"Today, Matthew S. Axelrod, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement, issued a Temporary Denial Order (TDO) immediately suspending the export privileges of three persons: Boris Livshits, Svetlana Skvortsova, and Aleksey Ippolitov; and two companies: Advanced Web Services, and Strandway, LLC, for 180 days for the unauthorized export of sensitive items," the statement says.
According to the statement, those items helped Russia to conduct its special military operation in Ukraine, and some of the exported items may have a military use.
The export privileges were suspended for the period of 180 days.
According to the US authorities, the above-mentioned individuals and companies had links to Moscow-based companies Serniya Engineering and Sertal LLC "that operate under the direction of Russian intelligence services to procure advanced electronics and sophisticated testing equipment for Russia’s military industrial complex and research and development sector."
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that, in response to a request from the Donbass republics, he made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. He underscored that Moscow does not plan to occupy Ukrainian territories, instead planning to demilitarize and denazify the country. In response, the West started introducing sweeping sanctions against Russia and shipping weapons and military vehicles to Kiev already worth tens of billions of dollars at this point.