WASHINGTON — Russia’s third largest bank, Gazprombank, and its six foreign subsidiaries were hit with US sanctions Thursday — in an effort to limit Russia’s ability to evade the thousands of sanctions imposed on the country since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the sanctions on Russia’s largest unsanctioned bank would further reduce Russia’s military efforts and “make it more difficult for the Kremlin to evade U.S. sanctions and finance and equip its military.”
In addition, more than fifty internationally connected Russian banks, forty Russian securities registrars and fifteen Russian financial officials were hit by sanctions.
The measure comes after President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use US-supplied missiles over the weekend strike deeper into Russia, relax restrictions on the longer-range weapons, as Russia deploys thousands of North Korean troops to strengthen its war.
In addition, the Pentagon announced Wednesday that it will send Ukraine at least $275 million in new weapons, including an undisclosed number of weapons. anti-personnel landminesas the Biden administration races to do as much as possible help Kiev fight back against Russia for President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The sanctions, among other things, deny people and companies access to property or financial assets held in the U.S. and prevent U.S. companies and citizens from doing business with them.
Canada and Britain have previously imposed sanctions on Gazprombank.
The Treasury Department says Gazprombank is a means for Russia to finance its military to continue its war effort against Ukraine, using the bank to pay soldiers and compensate families of Russian soldiers killed in the fighting.
Gazprombank played a role in the remaining Russian natural gas supplies to Europe by handling payments from foreign customers.
Previous rounds of sanctions spared Russian gas because the European economy was so dependent on it, but Europe is now much less dependent on Russian gas, which only accounts for about 18% of imports. Russia cut off most supplies in 2022, plunging the continent into an energy crisis.
European governments and utilities have now lined up alternative supplies, with much of the liquefied gas coming by ship from the US and Qatar. Ukraine says it will stop the supply of Russian gas via a pipeline through Ukraine to Europe – about 4% of European gas imports – at the end of the year. Gazprom recently stopped deliveries via that pipeline to Austria’s OMV in a commercial dispute; OMV has said it has sufficient reserves and can find alternative supply elsewhere. The EU has set a non-binding target to end all Russian gas imports by 2027.
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McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany.