US blacklists Russian entities for ‘evasion of international sanctions’

The Biden administration on Thursday blacklisted dozens of individuals and entities it says are working to evade international sanctions aimed at imposing severe costs on Moscow and bankrupting Russia’s military over its war in Ukraine. 

“These designations will further impede Russia’s access to western technology and the international financial system,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “We will continue to target [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin’s war machine with sanctions from every angle, until this senseless war of choice is over.”

The sanctions target 10 individuals and 17 entities Blinken says are involved in networks designed to evade sanctions and procure western technology. The Biden administration’s sanctions regime against Russia, with hundreds of designations announced since Feb. 24, has included measures blocking Moscow’s access to key technology needed to support its military industry. 

Other sanctions announced on Thursday include the designation of three individuals involved in “malicious cyber activity,” Blinken said, including Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh, who was indicted by the Department of Justice in June. The indictment was unsealed last week. 

Gladkikh was indicted with three other Russians who worked for the Kremlin for allegedly carrying out hacking campaigns that targeted the global energy sector between 2012 and 2018. 

The Treasury designations block any property or interests held by sanctioned individuals in the U.S. and block financial or other interactions with the blacklisted individuals. 

The sanctions are being taken in coordination with the European Union, Japan and the United Kingdom, in particular against two Russian-linked entities based in the U.K. and one in Spain. 

The Treasury Department says the three entities are front companies that procure sensitive technology for Russian Intelligence Services. 

“These actions demonstrate our resolve to hold the Russian Federation accountable for its aggression against Ukraine and commitment to take further actions against persons supporting evasion of the sanctions that the United States and our allies and partners have put in place,” Blinken said.

The secretary also announced on Thursday that he directed the Treasury Department to expand its sanctions authorities to target Russia’s aerospace, marine, and electronics sectors.

“This allows for sanctions to be imposed on any individual or entity determined to operate or have operated in any of those sectors and provides an expanded ability to swiftly impose additional economic costs on Russia for its war of choice in Ukraine,” the secretary said. 

The Biden administration has focused on a globally-coordinated campaign of sanctions against Russia to impose severe financial costs over Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine in February.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Thursday that Russia’s economy is likely to shrink by 10 percent this year in response to global sanctions, but that Ukraine’s economy is suffering more, shrinking by 20 percent because of Moscow’s assault. 

The EBRD continued that the financial toll of the sanctions and the war are reverberating globally, disrupting key Russian and Ukrainian exports of wheat, corn, fertilizer, titanium and nickel, and contributing to a rise in cost for a host of commodities delivered across the world. 

The EBRD, which operates in central and southeastern Europe, Central Asia, Turkey and the southern and easter Mediterranean, has cut its growth forecast for 2022 in these areas by more than half, to 1.7 percent, down by 2.5 percent from its previous forecast, the group said in a statement.