US targets firms in UAE, Turkey over Russia sanctions evasion
The latest tranche of sanctions come as the Biden administration seeks to crack down on Russia’s financial facilitators.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration unveiled new sanctions Wednesday on more than 120 targets, including firms based in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, accused of bolstering Russia’s war effort in Ukraine and helping it evade sanctions.
Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago, the United States and its Western allies have imposed heavy sanctions designed to isolate Moscow. To restrict the revenue that Russia needs to fund its war, the Treasury Department has cracked down on the intermediaries used to circumvent sanctions and export controls.
“As the Kremlin seeks ways around the expansive multilateral sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia for its war against Ukraine, the United States and our allies and partners will continue to disrupt evasion schemes that support Putin on the battlefield,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement Wednesday.
The Biden administration has previously warned that Turkish and Emirati businesses engaging with sanctioned Russian entities could lose access to G-7 markets and open themselves up to sanctions.
