US busts network providing technology to Russian military - The Associated Press

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden medication connected Wednesday announced a circular of transgression charges and sanctions related to a analyzable strategy to procure subject technologies from U.S. manufacturers and illegally proviso them to Russia for its warfare successful Ukraine.

Some of the instrumentality was recovered connected battlefields successful Ukraine, the Justice Department said, and different atomic proliferation exertion was intercepted successful Latvia earlier it could beryllium shipped to Russia.

The Justice Department charged 9 radical successful abstracted cases successful New York and Connecticut, arsenic good arsenic 2 lipid brokers for Venezuela. The defendants are accused of acquiring the subject exertion from U.S. companies and past laundering tens of millions of dollars for affluent Russian businessmen and different sanctioned entities. Some of the defendants are besides accused of brokering illicit lipid deals for the Venezuelan state-owned lipid company.

“As I person said, our investigators and prosecutors volition beryllium relentless successful their efforts to identify, locate, and bring to justness those whose amerciable acts undermine the regularisation of instrumentality and alteration the Russian authorities to proceed its unprovoked penetration of Ukraine,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said successful a statement.

The 5 defendants charged successful New York are each Russian nationals, and 2 person been arrested. All 4 defendants successful the Connecticut lawsuit — 3 Latvians and 1 Ukrainian — were taken into custody months agone astatine the petition of U.S. authorities.

The transgression charges complement the latest circular of Biden medication sanctions targeting Russia.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions Wednesday against 1 of the men charged by the Justice Department, designating Yury Orekhov and 2 of his firms, Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH and Opus Energy Trading LLC, for procuring precocious semiconductors and microprocessors utilized successful combatant craft and ballistic and hypersonic rocket systems among different subject uses.

Orekhov and the firms yet sent the materials to Russian end-users, including companies designated by assorted national agencies, successful usurpation of U.S. export controls.

The Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control worked successful coordination to place the Russian network.

Along with sanctions connected members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner-circle, the U.S. has frozen Russian Central Bank funds and imposed assertive export controls.

The latest effort is dedicated to preventing Russia from procuring subject technologies.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said successful a connection Wednesday that Russia has progressively struggled to get the technologies it needs to prolong the warfare “thanks to the unprecedented sanctions and export controls imposed by our wide conjugation of partners and allies.”

“We cognize these efforts are having a nonstop effect connected the battlefield,” helium said, “as Russia’s desperation has led them to crook to inferior suppliers and outdated equipment.”

Information from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, presented Friday astatine the Treasury Department, said Russia has mislaid much than 6,000 pieces of instrumentality since the opening of the warfare successful precocious February and is turning to Iran and North Korea for supplies.

Russia is reliant connected overseas accumulation machinery and ongoing banking sanctions person undercut the Kremlin’s quality to get financing for importing subject equipment, the ODNI said.

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