The U.S. Treasury Department on August 16 announced that it has imposed sanctions on three entities it accused of being tied to arms deals between North Korea and Russia.
“This action is part of the continuing U.S. strategy to identify, expose, and disrupt third-country actors seeking to support Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.
The statement said Russia has increasingly been forced to “turn to its few allies,” including North Korea, to sustain its war in Ukraine as it expends munitions and loses heavy equipment on the battlefield.
“The United States continues to root out illicit financial networks that seek to channel support from North Korea to Russia’s war machine,” said Brian Nelson, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
“Alongside our allies and partners, we remain committed to exposing and disrupting the arms trade underpinning [Russian President Vladmir] Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine," he added.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has already imposed sanctions on hundreds of individuals and entities involved in circumventing international sanctions on Russia, the statement said.
The entities targeted are Limited Liability Company Verus, Defense Engineering Limited Liability Partnership, and Versor.
In March, the OFAC designated Slovak national Ashot Mkrtychev for attempting to facilitate arms deals between Russia and the North Korea. Mkrtychev is the president of Versor, the founder and owner of Verus, and the sole director of Defense Engineering.
Through his negotiations with North Korean and Russian officials, Mkrtychev organized potential plans to transfer more than two dozen kinds of weapons and munitions to Russia in exchange for a range of goods, including raw materials and commodities, to North Korea, according to the OFAC.
Mkrtychev has coordinated with North Korean procurement officials and used Versor to conduct negotiations with companies abroad, it said.
The sanctions freeze all property and interests in property that the designated entities have in U.S. jurisdiction. The OFAC’s regulations also generally prohibit all dealings by U.S.-based persons that involve any property or interests in property of designated entities.