"Sanctions Bite", Biden Admin Says, As It Toughens Measures Against Russia, Targets Chinese, Kyrgyz Evaders

The Biden administration Wednesday announced new 'biting' Russia sanctions, as well as further actions to tighten some of its previous sanctions against Moscow by giving Congress the ability to block any attempts to weaken measures against core parts of the Kremlin's war machine, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"These sanctions will further constrain Russia’s ability to wage war and thwart sanctions evasion,' Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement announcing the move.

The State Department will target more than 150 individuals and entities, dozens of them being outside Russia, particularly in China, which remains the largest supplier of critical defense-related goods to Russia.  Additional designations target subsidiaries of State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, Blinken noted.

Around 100 entities from the finance, energy and defence sectors are to be relisted by the Treasury Department under an unusual sanctions law which requires that Congress be given 30 days to consider any delistings.

"We thought it was appropriate to move up our sanctions regime under this new authority to ensure that Congress has full visibility both on our sanctions and any contemplated – any contemplation of removing them," State Department's spokesperson Matthew Miller told a daily briefing when responding to TURAN's questions.

The new authority will give legislators an opportunity to head off any attempts by the incoming Trump administration to reverse its predecessors' efforts to weaken Russia’s military-industrial efforts.

"We believe that the sanctions we have put in place have been effective in harming Russia’s economy, in curbing to some extent its ability to fund its war machine, and we hope that they’ll stay in place.  But those are decisions for the next administration" Miller said, adding for example, that sanctions Washington had announced just in the past week, "we are already seeing bite".

He went on to explain, "... If you look at the story that Bloomberg ran in the last 24 hours about a number of Russian tankers who are unable to dock in China right now to unload their oil, it’s because of the sanctions that we have put into place.  And that’s just the latest amount of – tranche of sanctions"

The Treasury Department also announced new sanctions on a Kyrgyz bank, Keremet Bank, saying that it was "strongly linked to a Russian oligarch with ties to the Russian government” and “intended to create a sanctions evasion hub for Russia to pay for imports and receive payment for exports”.