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The US on Thursday imposed fresh sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, hitting operators in the technology sector in an effort to prevent Moscow from evading sanctions and expanding Washington's sanctions authorities.
The US Treasury Department in a statement said it had imposed sanctions on 21 entities and 13 people, including Joint Stock Company Mikron, the largest Russian manufacturer and exporter of microelectronics and Russia's largest chipmaker.
The Treasury said the decision comes after the March 24 designation that dozens of companies in Russia's defence-industrial base are directly supporting President Vladimir Putin's war efforts.
The sanctions are a “crackdown on the Kremlin’s sanctions evasion networks and technology companies, which are instrumental to the Russian Federation’s war machine”, the department said.
The Treasury also expanded sanctions authorities to include the aerospace, marine and electronics sectors of the Russian economy. The move allows Washington to impose sanctions on any person or entity determined to operate in those sectors, the Treasury said.
Thursday's move also took aim at “malicious cyber actors”, the Treasury said.
“Russia not only continues to violate the sovereignty of Ukraine with its unprovoked aggression but also has escalated its attacks striking civilians and population centres,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
“We will continue to target Putin’s war machine with sanctions from every angle until this senseless war of choice is over.”
The measures are the latest in a series of sanctions imposed on Moscow by Washington and its allies since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in the biggest assault on a European state since the Second World War.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday said he and US President Joe Biden had discussed a “new package of enhanced sanctions” during an hour-long phone call.
Reuters contributed to this report
