(Washington) Washington announced new sanctions against Russia on Thursday, this time targeting the technology sector, including the largest Russian manufacturer of semiconductors, in order, among other things, to prevent the circumvention of Western sanctions.
Posted at 4:24 p.m.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it was targeting “21 entities and 13 individuals in its crackdown on Kremlin sanctions-busting networks and tech companies, which are instrumental in the war machine. of the Russian Federation”.
The company Serniya Engineering is thus one of the targets of this new salvo of sanctions, accused of being at the heart of the network set up to circumvent the sanctions imposed by Western countries.
“Today’s actions demonstrate the US government’s commitment to countering the circumvention of Western sanctions” against Russia, the Treasury said.
Washington also sanctioned the company Mikron, “the largest chip manufacturer in Russia” which, underlines the Treasury, “exports more than 50% of Russian microelectronics”.
“The Russian army depends on key Western technologies for the operation of its defense industrial base”, specifies the Treasury.
Thus, the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury Department) targets “the main Russian technology companies which allow the illegal war of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin against Ukraine. These designations will further impede Russia’s access to Western technology and the international financial system.”
“We will continue to target Putin’s war machine with sanctions from every angle, until this senseless war is over,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the statement.
The number two of the Treasury, Wally Adeyemo went to Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday, “to continue the close coordination with the European Union on the sanctions imposed on Russia”.
“Delegations discussed steps to unify sanctions implementation and enforcement, expand joint sanctions cooperation, and deepen the transatlantic alliance,” the Treasury Department said in a separate statement. .
Washington had already targeted, with its previous sanctions, the Russian defense industry, and the Deputy Treasury Secretary announced on Tuesday that other sectors “essential to the Kremlin’s ability to operate its war machine” would be targeted.