ISLAMABAD: The Biden administration on Monday unveiled a new round of trade sanctions against 11 Chinese and five Russian firms, accusing some of them of providing drone parts to aid Russia in its military operation in Ukraine.
The US Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, added 28 entities to its trade blacklist, also known as the Entity List, and this move makes it much harder for American companies to provide them with technology, according to The Washington Post.
Some of the companies that will be targeted include Asia Pacific Links Ltd. of China and SMT-iLogic of Russia. The US authorities stated that nine of the named companies were part of a plot to sell drone parts to the already sanctioned Special Technology Centre (STC), which manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles on behalf of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of Russia.
A joint investigation by Reuters, Russian media outlet iStories, and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a UK defence think tank, last year traced a global supply chain feeding into the manufacture of Orlan drones at STC’s facility in St Petersburg.
That probe singled out the Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Links Ltd. as one of the most important suppliers of the Russian drone manufacturing program. Both the Asia Pacific Links and SMT-iLogic had already been blacklisted by the US in May.
The companies listed in the new round of sanctions were not available to comment on the matter.
The US would be tough on anyone supporting the military activities of Moscow, said Alan Estevez, the Under Secretary of the Commerce Department in charge of Industry and Security. We will not be afraid to act decisively and substantively against those who persist in attempting to supply and sustain Putin and his illegal and immoral war in Ukraine, he said in a statement.
Besides targeting the companies that are said to be supporting Russia, the Commerce Department also added six more Chinese entities to the blacklist because they procured aerospace components for the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Company. The components are thought to be utilised in drones that Iran has been launching against oil tankers in the Middle East and Russia against Ukraine.
The STC was first authorised by the US under the Obama administration, after it was accused of colluding with the Russian military intelligence to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election. The centre used to manufacture surveillance devices for the Russian government, but now it is mainly involved in the production of military drones.
The US government has been actively employing its Entity List to restrict the export of technologies to both the high-tech sector in China and the defence industry in Russia to undermine their military potential and reduce their influence in the ongoing conflicts in the world.
