The United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC has blacklisted 22 individuals and entities across several countries as part of their ongoing strategy to clamp down on sanctions evasion in the world.
The sanctions were imposed due to the involvement of individuals and entities in a sanctions evasion network that was supporting Russia's military-industrial complex.
The Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs REPO Task Force, an international coalition of partners aimed at identifying, freezing and seizing the assets of sanctioned Russians across the world, were part of the actions taken.
The Department of Treasury released a press release Tuesday, citing information from international partners as well as data from Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network FinCEN to shut off opportunities for Russia to evade or circumvent US and partner sanctions.
The blacklisting targeted a Russian sanctions evasion network led by Russia and Cyprus-based arms dealer Igor Vladimirovich Zimenkov and his son Jonatan Zimenkov.
The Zimenkovs have also been involved in facilitating Russian defense sales to third-party governments and have provided support to the Belarusian military-industrial complex, it added.
Russia s desperate attempts to circumvent U.S. sanctions have made sanctions harder and costlier for Russia's military-industrial complex to resupply Putin's war machine, said Deputy Secretary of Treasury Wally Adeyemo.
Adeyemo said that the Treasury and coalition of partners have taken a number of steps to tighten sanctions against Russia's defense sector, its benefactors and its supporters, and that it is one of many steps that Treasury and its coalition of partners have taken.
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