OFAC Targets Russian Sanctions Evasion Network
The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated 10 individuals and 12 entities the agency said are related to a global sanctions evasion network that supports Russia’s military-industrial complex. The designations are part of a "strategy to methodically and intensively target sanctions evasion efforts around the globe, close down key backfilling channels, expose facilitators and enablers, and limit Russia’s access to revenue," OFAC said in a Feb. 1 news release.
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The designations target the Zimenkov network, led by Russia- and Cyprus-based Igor Zimenkov. The network has engaged in projects connected to the Russian military, including supplying high-tech devices. Network members have supported state-owned Russian defense companies. The network has enabled Russian defense sales to third-country governments through a "broad network of individuals and entities," OFAC said.
According to OFAC, the Treasury Department has sanctioned over 100 individuals and entities engaged in sanctions and export control circumvention on behalf of Russia since the start of 2022. The designations were taken as part of Treasury’s commitment to the Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs, or REPO, Task Force, it said.
“Russia’s desperate attempts to utilize proxies to circumvent U.S. sanctions demonstrate that sanctions have made it much harder and costlier for Russia’s military-industrial complex to re-supply Putin’s war machine,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said. “Targeting proxies is one of many steps that Treasury and our coalition of partners have taken, and continue to take, to tighten sanctions enforcement against Russia’s defense sector, its benefactors, and its supporters.”