US blacklists Russian entities for ‘evasion of international sanctions’

The administration of US President Joe Biden has imposed sanctions on dozens of Russian individuals and entities it says are working to evade US-led sanctions aimed at imposing severe costs on Moscow and bankrupting the country’s military, ratcheting up Washington’s offensive against Moscow over the military campaign in Ukraine.

“These designations will further impede Russia’s access to western technology and the international financial system,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Thursday.

“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,” he added.

The US sanctions target 10 individuals and 17 entities that the US claims are involved in networks designed to evade sanctions and procure western technology.

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

“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.

He also announced 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 imposed harsh economic and banking sanctions on Russia in response to Russia's military actions in Ukraine.

Biden said the sanctions would limit Russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen.

The US president claimed that the only other alternative to the sanctions would be to start a “Third World War.”

President Putin said earlier this month that Western sanctions on Russia were akin to a declaration of war.

White House: US, allies to impose more sanctions on Russia

The White House has said that the United States and its allies would impose more sanctions on Russia this week, as a top Greek diplomat said the sanctions are aimed at regime change in Moscow.   

A top Greek diplomat told The Hill in an interview in Washington, DC, published last week that the coordinated Western sanctions against Russia over its military campaign in Ukraine are aimed at regime change in Moscow.

Greek Alternate Foreign Minister Varvitsiotis Miltiadis hailed Biden for goading countries to impose coordinated sanctions on Moscow, but lamented Turkey’s absence from the Western push to punish Putin.

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