The United States unveiled a new list of sanctions against Russia, the toughest since the beginning of the war with Ukraine

The US Treasury Department, in coordination with the rest of the G7 countries, announced this Friday a wave of sanctions against more than 100 individuals and entities associated with the metals, mining, financial, technology and military sectors. Russiaas well as against 30 citizens and organizations from other countries accused of collaborating with Moscow.

The sanctions affect “individuals and legal entities of both Russian and third countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East“who support Russia’s military action” and seek to “fill in the gaps” left by previous rounds of sanctions, starting with the sanctions announced this Friday against Credit Bank of Moscow, the country’s most important private bank, excluded from SWIFT for the first time. international transfer system and is currently subject to a “complete blockade”, according to a statement from the Treasury Department.

Sanctions against third-country nationals are being introduced by the investigation, the main figure of which is the Italian-Swiss businessman Walter Moretti, accused of “secretly providing confidential information of Western technologies” to the government. Russian special servicesthe same allegations that point to other individuals on the new sanctions list and associated with Moretti, such as the German Markus Gerhard Müller, as well as two companies based in the United Arab Emirates, such as Taerio Limited and Tamyna FZE, operating as a “cover” for the employer .

“Moretti and his co-conspirators have also purchased equipment for Russian nuclear weapons labs,” adds the finance ministry, whose sanctions also affect companies linked to the businessman and his associates in Malta and Bulgaria.

In addition, the United States also imposed sanctions on Nurmurad Kurbanov, “a Russian-Turkmen arms dealer who represented Russian and Belarusian defense companies abroad” and Alexander Yevgenyevich Udodov, a Russian businessman associated with that country’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, accused of illegal financial activities.

The military sanctions target the supply of carbon fiber materials, starting with those imposed on the main Russian manufacturer of this type of product, UMATEX, as well as other smaller companies such as Argon, specializing in materials “used in almost all platforms related to military defense, including aircraft, ground combat vehicles, ballistic missiles and military personal protective equipment, as well as other weapons systems.”

“Life for Ukrainians is hell”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the organization’s Security Council that after a year of war, the “greatest crisis of displaced persons” in decades has been unleashed.

About 17.6 million people – about 40% of Ukraine’s population – are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection, and the crisis has also destroyed 30% of the jobs that were before the start of the war by Russia, lamented António Guterres.

This led to an exodus of 8 million people seeking asylum to Europe, he said, in what was the “biggest displacement crisis” in decades. To these are added 5.4 million internally displaced persons.

According to the World Food Program (WFP), about 40% of Ukrainian citizens do not have enough food, and more than half of the children were forced to leave their homes. He recalled that many unaccompanied minors face “serious risks of abuse, abuse and exploitation”.

(According to Europa Press and EFE)