The United States imposes sanctions against 120 entities from Russia and Belarus

The United States imposes export sanctions against 120 entities from Russia and Belarus.

The blacklisted organizations reportedly “acted contrary to the interests of national security or the foreign policy of the United States.” The sanctions list included organizations “for the purchase and attempts to purchase products included in the list of prohibited [к поставкам]to support the armed forces” of the Russian Federation and “support Russia’s efforts to modernize [своих] armed forces.”

According to TASS, the list of 96 Russian enterprises included, among other things, PO Sevmash (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation), the 46th Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Institute of High Energy Physics, the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics named after A. I. Alikhanova, Pella shipbuilding plant, 35 enterprises of the Tactical Missiles Corporation, Professor NE Zhukovsky Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute.

The US Department of Commerce has also imposed export sanctions against 24 Belarusian legal entities, including the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus, the Committee for State Security (KGB) and the KGB special unit Alfa. The black list included, among other things, the State Military-Industrial Committee of Belarus, the Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant (MZKT), as well as the Department of Internal Affairs of the Gomel Regional Executive Committee.

The notice emphasizes that the sanctions were imposed “in response to the fact that Belarus significantly contributed and supported” the Russian special operation in Ukraine.

The document states that the legal entities were included in the sanctions list “for the purchase and attempts to purchase products included in the list of prohibited [для экспорта], in order to support the armed forces of Belarus”. It is emphasized that now, when considering license applications for export, the persons on the list will be subject to a “presumption of refusal”.

Recall that on February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), and on February 24 he made an emergency appeal to the Russians and announced a special military operation in Donbass. In his speech, he stated that “circumstances require decisive action from Russia” and stressed that “Russia will not allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons.” The goals of the special operation were called “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine.

In response to Russia’s actions, Western countries (USA, Canada, European Union, Great Britain, Japan) announced new, tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation, including financial and economic ones.

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