Exactly two years after the start of hostilities, the United Kingdom announced the imposition of a new package of over 50 sanctions against individuals and entities supporting the war in Ukraine or benefiting from it. They were presented by Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
Among the organisations targeted by sanctions are arms companies, electronics manufacturers, and natural resource traders believed to be involved in financing military operations. Despite international isolation, many European, American, and Asian companies are still doing business with Russian enterprises involved in the extraction and processing of minerals, metals, oil, and diamonds. As Cameron stated, the economic pressure is intended to cut off the oxygen to Russia’s military budget.
Furthermore, the UK continues its policy of imposing sanctions on those assisting Russia in circumventing current restrictions, including companies based in Belarus, North Korea, Turkey, the UAE, and China. In tandem with allies, the UK also expands pressure on Russian shipping activities.
It is emphasised that the sanctions are being introduced on the eve of a special session of the UN dedicated to Ukraine, which will take place in New York on February 28. Cameron plans to participate in the event and meet with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba at the UN venue.
So, the following are subject to sanctions:
– Companies involved in the production of ammunition, such as missile launch systems, rockets, explosives, and other critically important goods used in military technology. This includes the Sverdlov State Owned Enterprise, the largest enterprise in the Russian defence industry.
– Key Russian importers and manufacturers of machinery playing a crucial role in the production of defence systems and components, ranging from missiles, engines, to tanks and fighters.
– Oil trader Niels Troost and his company Paramount Energy & Commodities SA. Troost facilitates trade in Russian oil outside the scope of UK and G7 sanctions, including through the UAE-based company Paramount Energy & Commodities DMCC, which the UK listed in November 2023.
– Shipping companies Fractal Marine DMCC, Beks Ship Management, and Active Shipping.
– The UK, US, and EU have added 5 new items to the common high-priority list (CHP) published in September 2023. These 5 new codes apply to numerical control machines crucial in the production and servicing of military equipment. It is emphasisedthat companies should take note of the updated list and apply stricter controls on the export of these goods.
Foreign legal and natural persons, including:
– Cozum Yazilim Donanim Elektronik, a Turkish company supplying electronics to the Russian company Fastimpex.
– 3 companies based in China: Finder Technology LTD, JUHANG Aviation Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Limited, and Beijing Micropilot Flight Control Systems Co., LTD which supply sanctioned electronics to Russia;
– 2 companies from Belarus: Government of Belarus- Precise Electro-Mechanics Plant, producing various defence products, and JSC Planar, producing semiconductors and other electronics.
– 3 proxy-Russian private military security companies, including the PMC Redut.
– Importers and manufacturers of machinery widely used in the Russian defence sector. These include: JSC Sasta, JSC Baltic, Baltic Industrial, LLC Bitvan, Chelyabinsk Forge and Press Plant, and LLC Stan.
– Anna Yurevna Luzhanskaya, owner of the sanctioned Russian electronics manufacturing company LLC Fly Bridge.
– NPP Istok, part of a clandestine procurement network used by Russia to acquire critically important Western technologies.
– Inkotekh, a Russian importer of microchips, connectors, computing modules, and microwave components.
– The 224th Flight Unit State Airlines and its director Vladimir Vladimirovich Mikheychik. The company is reported to have been involved in the transfer of weapons from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to Russia and supported the movement of Wagner Group troops.
– Azia Shipping Company and Ibex Shipping INC, engaged in transporting weapons from the DPRK to Russia, and Azia Shipping Holdings LTD, operating in the Russian transport sector.
– Arctic LNG 2 and its director Oleg Vyacheslavovich Karpushin.
– 6 members of the Board of Directors of PJSC Novatek, the main owner of Arctic LNG 2: Lev Vladimirovich Feodosyev, Valery Anatolyevich Kryukov, Viktor Gennadiyevich Nesterenko, Alexei Vitalyevich Orel, Irina Vernerovna Gaida and Alexander Yegorovich Natalenko.
– 2 Russian diamond companies, OJSC Almazny Mir and JSC AGD Diamonds, and Pavel Alekseevich Marinychev, the new CEO of Alrosa.
– 4 members of the Management Board of Alrosa, Russia’s state-owned diamond company, including Evgenii Yuryevich Agureev, Sergei Vladimirovich Barsukov, Aleksei Nikolaevich Filippovskii and Igor Vitalyevich Sobolev.
– Owners of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC), including Eduard Alexandrovich Chukhlebov, Igor Gennadievich Kudryashkin and Aleksandr Vladimirovich Bunin.
– Anatoly Mikhailovich Sedykh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of United Metallurgical Company (OMK), one of the largest steel pipe producers in Russia.
– Igor Vladimirovich Zyuzin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of PAO Mechel.
– 2 aluminium plants: Samara Metallurgical Company; Kamensk-Uralskiy Metallurgicheskiy Zavod.
The sanctions imposed by the UK include asset freezing, transport and immigration restrictions, pressure on intermediaries engaged in parallel imports to Russia, and represent a comprehensive strategy aimed at cutting off illegal financial flows, as well as a ban on entry into the United Kingdom for over 2,000 specific individuals.
