Washington’s latest sanctions announcement came as U.S. President Joe Biden is attending the G7 summit in Italy.
The United States imposed new sanctions on more than 300 individuals and companies it said were supporting Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine, including entities in China, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday that the measures were aimed at targeting Moscow’s remaining means of obtaining supplies and equipment needed to continue the war.
“We are increasing risk to financial institutions involved in Russia’s war economy, eliminating avenues for tax evasion, and reducing Russia’s ability to benefit from access to foreign technology, equipment, software and IT services. Every day Russia continues to mortgage its own future in order to continue its unjust war against Ukraine,” Yellen said in a statement.
In remarks carried by Russia’s state-run TASS news agency, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow “will not leave such aggressive actions unreacted.”
Targeted companies included Moscow Stock Exchange, which runs Russia’s largest public market for stocks and foreign exchange products, United Arab Emirates-based Red Coast Metals Trading Co., and Chinese companies Hangzhou Kemingzhi Optical Technology Co. and Shandong Ollie Laser Technology Co.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters earlier this week that Washington will “confront China’s non-market policies, which are having harmful global ripple effects.”
China has forged close ties with Russian President Putin since the invasion of Ukraine but has repeatedly denied supplying arms to Moscow.
In the latest measures, Washington will also expand the definition of the “military-industrial base” and apply so-called secondary sanctions to foreign financial institutions that do business with sanctioned entities.
The U.S. Commerce Department separately said it had blacklisted eight Hong Kong addresses to block shell companies it believes are diverting semiconductors to Russia.
The latest sanctions announcement came as US President Joe Biden arrived in Italy to attend the G7 summit.
The summit, bringing together leaders of major economies including Britain, France, Germany and Japan, is expected to focus on ways to step up support for Ukraine and secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
