OFAC and State designate networks supporting ‘Kremlin elites’

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) and the Department of State have sanctioned ‘a transnational network procuring technology that supports the Russian military-industrial complex’ and ‘a global network of financial facilitators, enablers, and others associated with two key Kremlin-linked elites whose fortunes are intertwined with the West,’ according to statements from those agencies.

Consonant with recent US government messaging on the Russian military complex’s reliance on imported semiconductors, the agencies said that they had designated ‘AO PKK Milandr (Milandr), a Russian microelectronics company that has been described as part of the Russian military research and development structure defense technology firm,’ and in so doing, ‘took action to disrupt Milandr’s illicit global microelectronics procurement network.’

It has also designated Armenian affiliate, Milur Electronics, ‘for being owned or controlled by, or for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Milandr,’ as well as officials of Milur SA, which it says is ‘the Switzerland-based primary shareholder of Milur Electronics and has been utilized by employees and business associates of Milandr to coordinate financial transfers to Milur Electronics.’

‘A warning to supporters of sanctioned persons’

In similar vein, the agencies have designated Sharp Edge Engineering Inc., a Taiwan-based front company used to purchase microelectronic components from Asian companies, and – separately – a network of family, associates, and associated companies of Suleiman Abusaidovich Kerimov, designated in September for ‘being or having been a leader, official, senior executive officer, or member of the board of directors of the Government of the Russian Federation.’

OFAC said, ‘These designations should serve as another warning that those who support sanctioned Russian persons risk being sanctioned themselves.’
https://www.state.gov/targeting-russias-global-military-procurement-network-and-kremlin-linked-networks/