The United States on Thursday imposed a new round of sanctions on 130 firms and people from Turkey, China and the United Arab Emirates in an effort to choke off Russia’s access to tools and equipment that support its invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions imposed by Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control target third-party firms and people alleged to assist Moscow in procuring equipment needed on the battlefield, including suppliers and shippers. In addition, the State Department imposed diplomatic sanctions targeting Russian energy production and its metals and mining sector.
Thursday’s sanctions targets include Turkish national Berk Turken and his firms, which are alleged to have ties to Russian intelligence. The Treasury Department said Turken’s network arranged payments and shipping details designed to bypass sanctions and move goods from Turkey to Russia.
A series of United Arab Emirates firms alleged to have shipped aviation equipment, machines for data reception and more also were sanctioned. And UAE-based ARX Financial Engineering Ltd. was sanctioned for allegedly being involved in finding ways for Russian rubles to be sent from sanctioned Russian bank VTB Bank and converted to U.S. dollars.
Turken and a representative from ARX were not immediately available for comment on Thursday.
