The West strengthens the control of sanctions on Russia – #West #strengthens #control #sanctions #Russia
Days before Russia launches a full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022 Boris Livshits From a company in Florida to his suburban home in New Hampshire military ordered a spectrum analyzer.
Livshits, who lives in Russia, has ordered multi-purpose technology worth millions of dollars from American companies for years, and this technology USAarranged its shipment to Russia through intermediaries and “kilah” companies.
USA According to its legal documents, a subtle scheme was developed to hide the end user of these products. And the end user Russia military– is an industrial complex.
A spectrum analyzer that measures electronic signals is used on the battlefield and in counter-surveillance operations. At home in New Hampshire, this device was packaged by Alexey Brayman in Germany Russia it was sent to the delivery address used by the intelligence service, and from there it was delivered to Russia.
USA Russia broke this network only last year. Brayman and other American citizens who allegedly helped Livshits export controlled products to sanctioned entities imprisonment done. A third suspect, Vadim Konoshchenok, suspected of being an FSB operative, was tried by Estonian police to cross the border into Russia at the request of the United States. imprisonment did. Four other Russians, including Livshits, are charged with conspiracy to violate sanctions, wire fraud and money laundering. But for now they imprisonment they haven’t been.
According to some estimates, the number of similar schemes used by Russians to evade Western financial sanctions and export controls on Russia after February 2022 is in the hundreds.
USA and Europe Russia imposed more than 11,000 restrictions on individuals, companies, products and technologies, including the export of microchips, to weaken its economy and its ability to wage war.
But Russia has withstood the tsunami of Western financial and export sanctions more than initially expected. Among the factors helping Russia is high energy pricesredirecting the economy to Asia, increasing government spending, and avoiding sanctions.
The second year of war and sanctions has already begun. The US and its allies are focusing on filling the gaps by tightening controls to further weaken Russia’s economy and war machine.
Former senior adviser of the US Treasury Department, currently an analyst at the Atlantic Council Brian O’Toole (Brian O’Toole) said in an interview with RFE/RL that although the level of compliance with sanctions is mostly normal, there are difficulties in the field of export control.
According to the government statistics agency Rosstat, the Russian economy shrank by 2.1% last year. When the first round of Western sanctions was applied, many economists of this indicator 10They planned it to be -15%.
Some economists question whether Rosstat has manipulated the data. because President Vladimir Putin It tries to create a picture of Russia taking a stand against the sanctions. His government does not allow the publication of some statistics. This makes it difficult to measure the dynamics of the economy.
“Russia has turned statistics into a tool of disinformation war”, – Director of the global forecasting group of the intelligence department of “Economist” magazine Agat Demare (Agathe Demarais) notes in her column for “Foreign Policy” last month. Demare is also the author of a book on sanctions.
In addition, experts say that the state of the Russian economy is worse than Rosstat’s data shows. They note that relatively good indicators are increasing military formed at the expense of expenses, which does not affect the improvement of living standards. Russians cut spending last year at the fastest pace recorded since 2015. The war has had a negative impact on consumer confidence.
Western governments are looking for ways to tighten control over sanctions.
The US and its allies also help domestic companies identify undesirable actors and encourage third countries to prevent smuggling and money laundering.
Livshitz wrote to the Florida company in April about the caliber of the spectrum analyzer he had purchased complaint In his letter, he said that he was in Russia, thereby making the US law enforcement agencies suspicious and taking over his network. Eight months later, Livshits patrons in the United States were arrested.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken last week to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to discuss a number of issues, including the imposition of sanctions trip did. These countries Turkey and, together with China, acts as a transit for the transfer of prohibited goods to Russia and the evasion of financial sanctions.
“We are following the issue of compliance with sanctions very closely,” – Blinken he said at a press conference he held together with his Kazakh colleague on February 28.
A few weeks ago, a senior US Treasury Department official in charge of sanctions sent similar messages. Turkey and to the Middle East trip had done
The US Departments of Justice, Treasury and Commerce issued a joint appeal to the country’s companies on March 2. The document contains recommendations on purifying schemes such as the network managed by Livshits.
At the same time in the document Armenia and Uzbekistan are shown to be the two main countries from which Russia receives banned goods.
Experts say that Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are also transit countries in this regard. ArmeniaKazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are members of the Eurasian Economic Union led by Russia, which allows free circulation of goods between these countries.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tilleuberdi He said at a joint press conference with Blinken that with Russia customs the lack of a border “makes it very difficult to manage” cases of evasion of sanctions.
Recently, to order and pay for the microchips inside some devices of PKK Milandr, a microelectronics company belonging to the Russian military-industrial complex. Armenia and claimed to have benefited from Swiss companies.
In November, the USA imposed sanctions on those Armenian and Swiss companies and their managers.