The United States announced sanctions Wednesday on more than 280 individuals and companies based in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Belgium, the PRC, Russia, Slovakia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and others that enable Russia to acquire desperately needed technology and equipment from abroad, aiming to disrupt Moscow’s military procurement networks amid its war in Ukraine.
The latest sanctions were imposed by the US Treasury Department and the US State Department separately and target 14 Turkey-based companies.
The Treasury sanctions target Russia’s military-industrial base and chemical and biological weapons programs as well as companies and individuals in third countries that help Russia acquire key inputs for weapons or defense-related production.
“Treasury has consistently warned that companies will face significant consequences for providing material support for Russia’s war, and the US is imposing them today on almost 300 targets,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen.
The Department of State’s sanctions target Russia’s revenue generation through its future energy, metals and mining production and additional individuals in connection with the death of opposition leader and anticorruption activist Aleksey Navalny.
Among the sanctioned companies by the US Treasury is Turkey-based GIF Osborne, accused of sending machine tools, polymers and industrial chemical products to Sonatec, a Russia-based developer and supplier of manufacturing solutions, metalworking equipment and high-precision machine tools that has working relationships with over a dozen Russian defense companies.
Turkey-based Etasis Etasis is accused of purchasing British machine tool equipment and reselling it to companies in Russia, while A Y A Universal is accused by the United States of shipping parts for diesel internal combustion engines and pumps to KAMAZ, Russia’s largest truck manufacturer.
Alpha Impex sent over $2 million in shipments to Russia-based end-users at the end of 2023, including microcircuits, programable logic devices and transistors, according to the US Treasury Department.
Modmer Trading, GQ Solution, LSS Global, Ida Asansor, Asay, Marten Ea-Belluga, Uzay Group and NA Havacilik are the 10 Turkey-based companies hit by the US State Department sanctions, which along with entities based in the PRC, Malaysia and the Kyrgyz Republic allegedly continue to send these items and other key dual-use goods to Russia, including critical components that Russia relies on for its weapons systems.
“We are particularly concerned by the scale and breadth of such exports from the PRC. Russia has continued to leverage sanctions evasion and circumvention networks to procure aviation and microelectronic components in an effort to sustain its military industrial base and aviation industry through the expropriation of U.S. and European aircraft,” the State Department said in a statement.
According to a report by the Financial Times this week, Turkish exports to Russia tumbled at the start of 2024, suggesting that a US crackdown on trade with goods Moscow uses in its war in Ukraine is starting to pay off.
Exports from Turkey to Russia fell by a third in the first three months of this year compared to the same period of 2023 to $2.1 billion, according to Financial Times calculations based on data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
The decline comes after the US administration issued an executive order in late December that gives the US Treasury Department the power to hit banks with secondary sanctions if they deal with companies that are subject to US bans because of their links to Russia’s military-industrial complex. The White House implemented the measure in a bid to stymie trade in goods such as microchips that Russian President Vladimir Putin needs for his war against Ukraine.