The United States has levied new sanctions against a host of major Russian, Chinese and other companies, accusing them of violating embargoes on transferring weapons of mass destruction technologies to Iran, North Korea and Syria.
Among the best known of the 23 companies and entities appearing on the blacklist, published on September 2 in the U.S. Federal Register, were Rosoboroneksport, the Russian state arms trader, and the Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG, maker of the famed fighter jet.
Others include the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite paramilitary unit; various military units in Syria, as well as military industrial companies in Sudan, Venezuela, and Belarus.
The announcement charges the entities with violating the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act, which penalizes people and organizations that traffic in missile technology or other weapons of mass-destruction technology with those three countries.
The register does not specify what exact actions the companies took that resulted in them being blacklisted. But Russia's sales of helicopters, aircraft, tanks and missiles to Syria and missiles to Iran have in the past irked Washington.
The sanctions restrict U.S. government agencies from dealing with the companies, which has potentially complications for other U.S. initiatives around the world.
Rosoboroneksport, a state-controlled giant whose sales of Russian hardware generate hundreds of millions in revenues for the Kremlin, has cooperated with the Pentagon in the past, for example, on supplying helicopters for Afghanistan's armed forces.
Major U.S. companies such as Boeing and General Electric have been involved in joint ventures with companies that share Rosoboroneksport's parent corporation, Rostec.
The company has been sanctioned in the past for arms deals involving Iran.
Russia also recently announced it was moving forward with long-delayed plans to sell Iran advanced S-300 antiaircraft missile systems, something that the United States and Israel have strenuously objected to.
