U.S. unveils latest sanctions, targets Russian bank, oligarch and virtual currency

Washington on Wednesday unveiled its latest round of sanctions on Russia over its war on Ukraine, targeting dozens of individuals and entities, including a Russian commercial bank and a virtual currency mining company, TURAN's U.S. correspondent reports.

Note that the aim of this new round of penalties is “to target Moscow’s evasion of existing sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.

With that end in view, the U.S. is now sanctioning Russia's Transkapitalbank, whose representatives it said serve several banks in Asia, including in China, and the Middle East, as well as a global network of more than 40 people and entities led by Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, alleging involvement in attempts to evade sanctions on Russia.

Besides, the Treasury department is sanctioning Russian firm Bitriver and 10 of its Russian-based subsidiaries as part of an effort to target Russia’s cryptocurrency mining industry, which the agency said helps monetize Russian exports.

“Treasury can and will target those who evade, attempt to evade, or aid the evasion of U.S. sanctions against Russia, as they are helping support Putin’s brutal war of choice,” Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement.

At that, “the United States will work to ensure that the sanctions we have imposed, in close coordination with our international partners, degrade the Kremlin’s ability to project power and fund its invasion,” Nelson said.

Moreover, the State Department also imposed on Wednesday a slew of visa restrictions on 635 Russian individuals, including members of the Russian Duma and "ten purported 'authorities' of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic," in response to the Russian war and for "undermining democracy in Belarus."

"President Putin’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine, conducted with the complicity of the Lukashenka regime, continues to cause needless suffering and thousands of civilian casualties.  The world has witnessed the horrors of this war in the images from the Ukrainian towns of Bucha, Irpin, and Hostomel, and in Ukrainian towns and cities still occupied or under siege, such as Mariupol" - Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

The latest visa restrictions also target Russian officials Khusein Merlovich Khutaev, Nurid Denilbekovich Salamov, and Dzhabrail Alkhazurovich Akhmatov, "for their involvement in a gross violation of human rights perpetrated against human rights defender Oyub Titiev."

Additionally, the State Department is targeting "17 individuals responsible for undermining democracy in Belarus" with visa restrictions, Blinken said.

"We will use every tool to promote accountability for human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law in Ukraine," Blinken added.

It should be added that wednesday sanctions came just ahead of White House's expected announcement of a new round of security assistance to Ukraine. As TURAN reported yesterday, the Biden administration is prepping another hundreds of million military assistance package for Ukraine.

In accord with the White House schedule, President Biden will "provide an update on Russia and Ukraine" today at 9:45 AM, local time.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.