Written by Daphne Psalidakis and David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Wednesday imposed hundreds of sanctions targeting Russia, seeking to increase pressure on Moscow in the final days of the Biden administration and protect some of its previously imposed sanctions.
The US Departments of State and Treasury imposed sanctions on more than 250 targets, including some based in China, with the aim of Russia evading US sanctions and its military industrial base.
As part of this action, the Treasury Department imposed new restrictions on nearly 100 entities that were already subject to sanctions, which could complicate any future efforts to remove these measures.
The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Treasury Department said in a statement that Washington is imposing new sanctions on nearly 100 significant Russian entities – including Russian banks and companies operating in the Russian energy sector – that the United States had previously imposed sanctions on. She said that this step increases the risk of secondary sanctions being imposed on them.
The new sanctions were issued under an executive order that a senior Treasury Department official said required Congress to be notified before any measures were rolled back.
Jeremy Banner, a partner at law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed, said the measures are “Trump-proof,” preventing additional sanctions from being repealed without congressional approval.
“You can't just remove what's happening with the stroke of a pen,” he said.
Edward Fishman, a former US official who now works as a researcher at Columbia University, described this as “a very important measure.”
“It protects these sanctions from any trivial decision to lift them,” he said. “It gives the new Trump administration more leverage with Russia.”
Trump's transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is not clear how Donald Trump, who will succeed President Joe Biden on Monday, will deal with the issue of sanctions on Russia. Trump has been friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past, and said on Monday that he would aim to meet with him quickly to discuss Ukraine.
When Trump was asked about his strategy for ending the war, he told Newsmax: “Well, there is only one strategy and it is up to Putin and I cannot imagine that he is very happy with the way the war ended, because it did not go well for him.” also.”
Sanctions evasion plan
Washington also took action against a sanctions evasion scheme set up between actors in Russia and China, targeting the two countries' regional clearing platforms, which it said were working to allow cross-border payments for sensitive goods. The Treasury Department said several Russian banks subject to US sanctions participated.
“China firmly opposes any illegal unilateral sanctions and ‘long-term jurisdiction,’” Liu Bingyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in a statement.
“The normal economic and trade exchanges between China and Russia should not be interfered with or disrupted, nor should they be used as a tool to distort and contain China,” he added.
Also sanctioned on Wednesday were Keremet Bank, a Kyrgyzstan-based financial institution that the Treasury Department accused of coordinating with Russian officials and a bank identified by the United States as circumventing sanctions.
Keremet Bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US State Department also imposed sanctions on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhya nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
Russia seized the plant, located in southeastern Ukraine, shortly after launching its invasion in 2022. It is closed but needs external power to keep its nuclear materials cool and prevent a meltdown.
Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday, citing the factory's spokeswoman, that the sanctions would not affect its operations.
The Biden administration imposed a set of punitive measures targeting Russia over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which killed or wounded thousands and reduced cities to rubble. Washington has repeatedly sought to confront evasion of its procedures.
Less than a week ago, the administration imposed the broadest package of sanctions to date targeting Russian oil and gas revenues in an attempt to give Kiev and the incoming Trump team leverage to reach a peace deal in Ukraine.
