The US Commerce Department warned last month that airlines had violated sanctions against the invasion of Ukraine by continuing to fly Boeing planes. The ministry said in a statement that the sanctioned airlines operated flights within Russia and countries such as China, Vietnam, Turkey, India and the United Arab Emirates without permission from the United States, as the sanctions require.
The violation will lead to a ban on Aeroflot, Azure Air and UTair, which operate large numbers of Boeing aircraft, for the next 180 days. “We are not only cutting off their access to goods from the United States, but also the re-export of goods of American origin from abroad,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.
“Any companies that violate our export regulations, especially those that do so for the benefit of Vladimir Putin and at the expense of the Ukrainian people, will feel the full force of the ministry’s implementation,” Raimondo said.
Abramovich
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who owned English football club Chelsea for many years, also violated sanctions by using a Gulfstream jet. But the Americans are not taking any punitive measures against him because of his participation in peace talks with Ukraine in Turkey.
In addition to the Commerce Department’s actions, the US Treasury has announced sanctions against Russia’s state-owned Alrosa, one of the world’s largest diamond mining companies. The Russian Foreign Ministry also blacklisted the Russian state-owned company United Shipbuilding, as well as its subsidiaries and members of its board of directors.
