As the Group of Seven affluent nations imposed further sanctions against Moscow over its war in Ukraine, the Biden administration stopped the export of a wide range of consumer items to Russia and put 71 companies on a trade blacklist. The United States believes that everyday items like clothes dryers, snow ploughs, and milking machines might be repurposed to support Moscow’s war machine; thus, the new curbs target items that can be utilised to assist Russia’s military.
69 Russian companies, one from Armenia, and one from Kyrgyzstan are among the blacklisted businesses. Due to their support of Russia’s military and defence industries, they were added to the Commerce Department’s “Entity List,” making it even more difficult to transport any items to them. Russian shipyards, manufacturing facilities for tractors, automobiles, and gunpowder, as well as technical firms, are among the targeted businesses.
The actions are part of the most recent round of historically strict bans on exports and sanctions enacted by the United States and a coalition of 37 other nations in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The sanctions are meant to weaken Moscow’s industrial base and its capacity to continue the war.
The new regulations add a variety of electronics, instruments, and carbon fibres, as well as substances like fentanyl and its precursors, to the existing strict controls currently in place on Russia’s industrial, commercial, chemical, and biological sectors.
To further restrict Tehran’s capacity to provide Russia with drones, they also expanded the list of foreign-produced goods that Belarus, Russia, and Iran must obtain licences for. The new measures occurred as the “Group of Seven” major economies—the US and the other six—met in Japan and decided to tighten sanctions against Russia.
