WASHINGTON, March 31. /TASS/. The US Treasury Department on Thursday expanded its sanctions list for Russia by adding 13 individuals and 21 companies to it. This is according to a statement on the department’s website.
The US Treasury said that its new sanctions are "targeting operators in the Russian technology sector to prevent it from evading unprecedented multilateral sanctions and procure critical western technology."
"OFAC (the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control - TASS) is designating 21 entities and 13 individuals as part of its crackdown on the Kremlin’s sanctions evasion networks and technology companies," the statement says.
In particular, the sanctions target the Serniya Engineering and Sertal enterprises, which, according to the American side, "work to illicitly procure dual-use equipment and technology for Russia’s defense sector."
The US Treasury believes that "to evade sanctions and carry out their procurement of sensitive technology, Serniya and Sertal employed a network of individuals to structure transactions and deceive counterparties."
The sanctions also target key Russian technology companies operating in the defense sector. This list includes AI NII-Vektor research institute", T-Platforms, JSC Mikron, as well as the Molecular Electronics Research Institute (MERI).
"These designations will further impede Russia’s access to western technology and the international financial system," the document says.
The US Treasury announced additional sanctions against three employees of the Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics (TsNIIKhM), against whom in 2020 the United States had already introduced restrictions under CAATSA (the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act). The list included, in particular, Yevgeny Gladkikh, who was accused by the US Department of Justice on March 25 of committing cybercrimes. Sanctions were also imposed against the General Director of the TsNIIKhM, Sergey Bobkov, and his deputy, Konstantin Malevanyy.
On February 24, Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. After that the US, the EU, the UK and a number of other states announced that they would impose sanctions against Russian legal entities and individuals.