The biggest remaining unsanctioned Russian bank hit with U.S. sanctions, nearly three years into war

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia’s third largest bank, Gazprombank and its six foreign subsidiaries were hit with U.S. sanctions on Thursday — in a move intended to curtail Russia’s ability to evade the thousands of sanctions imposed on the nation since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the sanctions targeting Russia’s largest remaining non-sanctioned bank would further diminish Russia’s military effort and “will make it harder for the Kremlin to evade U.S. sanctions and fund and equip its military.”

In addition, more than 50 internationally connected Russian banks, 40 Russian securities registrars, and 15 Russian finance officials were hit with sanctions.

The move comes after President Joe Biden this weekend authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied missiles to strike deeper inside Russia, easing limitations on the longer range weapons as Russia deploys thousands of North Korean troops to reinforce its war.

In addition, on Wednesday the Pentagon announced that it will send Ukraine at least $275 million in new weapons, including an undisclosed number of antipersonnel land mines, as the Biden administration rushes to do as much as it can to help Kyiv fight back against Russia before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. “remains committed to putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position, and we will continue to take all available steps to do so from surging security assistance to imposing and fully enforcing sanctions and other restrictions on Russia’s war machine.”

Among other things, the sanctions deny the people and firms access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S. and prevent U.S. companies and citizens from doing business with them.

Canada and the United Kingdom have previously sanctioned Gazprombank.

Treasury states that Gazprombank is a means for Russia to fund its military to continue its war effort against Ukraine, using the bank to pay soldiers and compensate families of Russian soldiers killed in the fighting.

Gazprombank played a role in remaining Russian natural gas supplies to Europe by handling payments from foreign customers.

Earlier rounds of sanctions spared Russian gas because Europe’s economy was so dependent on it but Europe is now far less reliant on Russian gas, which is down to about 18% of imports. Russia cut off of most supplies in 2022, plunging the continent into an energy crisis.

European governments and utilities have now lined up alternative supplies, much of it liquefied gas brought by ship from the U.S. and Qatar. Ukraine says it will halt flows of Russian gas through a pipeline across Ukraine to Europe – about 4% of Europe’s gas imports – at the end of the year. Gazprom recently cut off shipments through that pipeline to Austria’s OMV in a commercial dispute; OMV has said it has plenty of reserves and can find alternative supply elsewhere. The EU has set a nonbinding goal of ending all Russian gas imports by 2027.

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McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany.

Fatima Hussein And Dave Mchugh, The Associated Press