Trump administration widens Russia sanctions

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The United States has added a new set of Russian organizations and individuals to its sanctions list.

The US Treasury Department is targeting two Russian shipping companies that it suspects transferred petroleum products to vessels operated by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. The two companies accused of the oil transfers are Primorye Maritime Logistics and Gudzon Shipping.

In a separate action, the US Treasury Department sanctioned two Russians and two other companies, accusing them of trying to circumvent sanctions imposed in June. That was in response to US findings of Russian cyber attacks on US infrastructure, which Russia denies.

The individuals and entities are accused of working in coordination with a previously sanctioned firm called Divetechnoservices. It has ties to Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB. The newly sanctioned entities are Vela-Marine and a Slovakian firm called Lacno S.R.O.

Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned in Salisbury along with her father, Russian spy Sergei Skripal, speaks in London, May 23, 2018. /VCG Photo

The US is also initiating a set of sanctions which are in direct response to the poisoning of a Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK late March. They block Russian state-owned and state-funded enterprises from receiving US supplied goods and technologies which can be used for national security purposes.

In a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Trump administration officials told lawmakers 217 Russians and state-run companies have been sanctioned since January 2017, the month President Donald Trump was inaugurated.

That includes 14 banks and 20 energy firms. Republican and Democratic senators indicated they are ready to introduce a whole new set of sanctions.

The US intelligence community believes Russia is working to disrupt this November's mid-term elections. Moscow continues to deny interference in US elections.

Asked how the sanctions will impact Russia's market, Pavel Felgenhauer, a defense analyst in Russia said, it will hit "Russia very seriously if they are introduced, and the Russian financial sector and some other parts of Russia's economy will suffer debts in particular".

From his point of view, Russia denied its involvement in the nerve agent attack and US presidential election, but the US still imposed sanctions on Russia. It might hint at the US administration's intention to follow Trump's intimidation policy to reach a negotiation.

So the new sanctions are not that important, and they are symbols, said Pavel. But he warned that more sanctions are coming, and they will have serious impacts.