United States imposed sanctions on about 400 entities and individuals, including 19 Indian firms and two Indian nationals, for helping Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine. “The United States is today sanctioning nearly 400 entities and individuals for enabling Russia’s prosecution of its illegal war,” a US State Department statement said.
US Sanctions Indian Firms | Amid Russia Ukraine War
Why In News
- United States imposed sanctions on about 400 entities and individuals, including 19 Indian firms and two Indian nationals, for helping Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine. “The United States is today sanctioning nearly 400 entities and individuals for enabling Russia’s prosecution of its illegal war,” a US State Department statement said.
Common High Priority List
- List Of Items That Russia Wants To Get For Its Weapons Programs. U.S. Department Of Commerce’s Bureau Of Industry And Security Identifies CHPL In Collaboration With European Union, United Kingdom, And Japan. Divided Into Four Tiers, Including Electronics, Mechanical Components, Other Components.
All You Need To Know
- Among the Indian firms listed in the statement is Ascend Aviation India Private Limited, which “sent over 700 shipments to Russia-based companies” from March 2023 to March 2024.
- “These shipments included over $200,000 worth of CHPL items, such as US-origin aircraft components,” US State Department said. The US also named Mask Trans, “an India-based company that supplied over $300,000 worth of CHPL items, including aviation components, to Russia-based and U.S.-designated S 7 ENGINEERING LLC between June 2023 and at least April 2024.”
- The US subsequently listed companies designated for “operating or having operated within the technology sector of the Russian Federation’s economy.” It added that “TSMD Global private limited is an India-based company that shipped at least $430,000 worth of CHPL items to Russia-based companies, including Electron Komponent.
- U.S.-designated companies: Limited Liability company VMK, Alfa limited liability company and joint stock company Avtovaz…these shipments, which occurred between July 2023 and March 2024, included U.S.- and EU origin BIS CHPL Tier 1 and 2 items such as electronic integrated circuits, central processing units, and other fixed capacitors”.
What Are Economic Sanctions?
- Sanctions basically restrict or entirely scrap the economic relations between the entity applying the sanctions and the one they are being applied on. Sanctions can take the form of import or export ban, refusal to trade, freezing of assets, ban from using banking systems and currency of a country or group of countries, etc.
- According to the Council on Foreign Relations, “Sanctions may be comprehensive, prohibiting commercial activity with regard to an entire country, like the long-standing US embargo of Cuba, or they may be targeted, blocking transactions by and with particular businesses, groups, or individuals.” US, for example, has imposed sanctions on a host of countries, including Iran, North Korea, China, etc. Russia, after the breakout of the Ukraine war, has become the most sanctioned country in the world.
- Apart from individual countries, the UNO also imposes economic sanctions, after they are approved by its Security Council. The European Union (EU), too, has a mechanism for imposing sanctions.
- While sanctions act as a tool of punishment or pressure tactic on the country or entity they are being applied to — the logic being that economic losses will force it to reconsider its moves — their efficacy has been debated. Critics have pointed out that targets can easily find ways to circumvent sanctions, and enforcing them hurts the other party too.
