On Thursday, The United States imposed sanctions on a firm it said was participating in a scheme to avoid U.S. sanctions while helping provide jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria. Russia is trying to skirt US sanctions and believes it can get away with it.
Just like Putin’s regime believed it could get away with doping its athletes.
The U.S. Treasury Department said the newly sanctioned firm, Maritime Assistance LLC, was operating as a front company for OJSC Sovfracht, a Russian company the United States had previously sanctioned in relation to operations in Ukraine.
The Treasury also targeted three individuals it said were tied to Sovfracht. It froze any assets they may hold in the United States and barring Americans from dealing with them.
Five ships were also designated as “blocked property” of previously sanctioned Russian firm Transpetrochart. The firm provides support to Sovfracht.
RUSSIAN WARPLANES TARGET SYRIAN CIVILIANS
The United States accuses Sovfracht of being behind a sanctions-evasion conspiracy to make payments and facilitate the transfer of supplies of jet fuel to Russian forces operating in Syria. Russian jets have cluster bombed civilians in hospitals, schools, markets, and in their homes.
Moscow launched its campaign in Syria in 2015, helping its close ally Assad turn the tide in the conflict.
On Friday, Russia’s foreign ministry issued a statement criticizing the new U.S. sanctions. The statement said that by seeking to undermine the Russian military’s refueling efforts in Syria, Washington was effectively siding with radical militants there.
How could the Russian make such logic stick is beyond us.
Russia has vetoed any effort at the United Nations to hold Assad accountable for his crimes against humanity. Its vetoes, now numbering 13, have enabled genocidal Assad to commit atrocities and mass murder against his own people.
Reuters contributed to this article.
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