US Treasury Imposes Sanctions On Russian Arms Dealer Network

The United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has blacklisted 22 individuals and entities across several countries as part of their ongoing strategy to clamp down on sanctions evasion globally.

The sanctions were imposed due to the involvement of the individuals and entities in a sanctions evasion network that was supporting Russia's military-industrial complex.

The actions taken were part of the Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force, an international coalition of partners aimed at identifying, freezing, and seizing the assets of sanctioned Russians across the world.

In a press release issued Tuesday, the Department of Treasury stated that the task force leverages information from international partners as well as data from Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to shut off opportunities for Russia to evade or circumvent US and partner sanctions.

The blacklisting targeted a Russian sanctions evasion network led by Russia- and Cyprus-based arms dealer Igor Vladimirovich Zimenkov and his son Jonatan Zimenkov.

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The Zimenkov network was involved in projects related to Russian defense capabilities and has provided support to sanctioned, state-owned Russian defense entities such as Rosoboroneksport OAO and State Corporation Rostec, the department stated.

The Zimenkovs have also been involved in facilitating Russian defense sales to third-party governments and have provided support to the Belarusian military-industrial complex, it added.

"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," said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo.

"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," Adeyemo added.

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